President Donald Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project was temporarily halted Tuesday by a federal judge.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation had sued the Trump administration after the destruction last fall of the White House’s East Wing.
The preservation group had most recently argued in court that Trump needed Congressional approval before making such major changes to the White House.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote in his decision that no statute ‘comes close’ to giving the President the authority to take on the project without Congressional oversight.
‘The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!’ Leon wrote.
Leon approved the Trust’s request to have work stopped on the ballroom project amid the legal fight.
He gave a two-week grace period for the implementation of his order and said construction could continue on portions of the project relevant to the security of the White House.
‘It is not too late for Congress to authorize the continued construction of the ballroom project,’ he wrote. ‘The President may at any time go to Congress to obtain express authority to construct a ballroom and to do so with private funds.’
The judge, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, previously said he believed his decision would be appealed and the case could end up in the Supreme Court.
It was, with the White House appealing the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
‘President Trump clearly has the legal authority to modernize, renovate, and beautify the White House – just like all of his predecessors did. We will immediately appeal this egregious decision and are confident we will prevail,’ spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Daily Mail in a statement.
The President had responded to the news Tuesday with a furious Truth Social post.
In it, he labeled the National Trust for Historic Preservation a ‘Radical Left Group of Lunatics.’
He then bemoaned how the White House ballroom and his takeover of the Kennedy Center have been the subject of lawsuits, but not the Federal Reserve headquarters renovations nor California Governor Gavin Newsom’s ‘RAILROAD TO NOWHERE.’
‘So, the White House Ballroom, and The Trump Kennedy Center, which are under budget, ahead of schedule, and will be among the most magnificent Buildings of their kind anywhere in the World, gets sued by a group that was cut off by Government years ago, but all of the many DISASTERS in our Country are left alone to die,’ Trump posted. ‘Doesn’t make much sense, does it?’
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a Congressionally chartered organization that was funded by the federal government for 30 years after the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act.
It now lives off private donations.
The group cheered Leon’s decision in a statement.
‘We are pleased with Judge Leon’s ruling today to order a halt to any further ballroom construction until the Administration complies with the law and obtains express authorization to go forward,’ said Carol Quillen, the president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
‘This is a win for the American people on a project that forever impacts one of the most beloved and iconic places in our nation,’ she added.
The Trust sued the Trump administration in December after the East Wing had already been turned to rubble and the White House had refused to ensure proper government oversight of the project.
Trump had argued that approvals weren’t necessary due to the project being completely funded by private donations.
The East Wing demolition had been a shock to many, as neither Trump nor White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had been fully transparent about the plans to tear down the area commonly used to house the offices of the First Lady.
Before the ballroom project began, Trump appointed his Staff Secretary, Will Scharf, to head the National Capital Planning Commission, one of the two panels that generally signs off on federal construction projects in the region.
Scharf said the NCPC doesn’t oversee demolitions, allowing the East Wing destruction to go unchallenged.
The Trust pushed the Trump administration to go through the traditional review processes used for these types of projects.
However Trump had stacked the NCPC and the Commission of Fine Arts, the other review group, with aides and allies.
In February, the Commission of Fine Arts, which commissioners include the President’s 26-year-old executive assistant, fast-tracked the ballroom’s approval without viewing the final design.
On Thursday, the NCPC is expected to do the same thing during the group’s April meeting.
In March, dozens of experts and citizens testified to NCPC commissioners over Zoom about the project.
Only one person, in hours of testimony, talked about it positively.
Architects, preservationists and average Americans called it ‘ugly’ and complained about its immense size.
