Judge Disinclined to Immediately Halt Trump Ballroom Project

A federal judge in Washington said on Tuesday that he is not inclined to order the Trump administration to immediately halt work on a $300 million White House ballroom on the site of the demolished East Wing while hearing a lawsuit alleging the project abuses presidential power.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said at a hearing that he was unlikely to issue the temporary restraining order sought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in its accusing President Donald Trump and federal agencies of starting the 90,000-square-foot project without legally required reviews or approvals.

The Republican president has made sweeping changes to the White House since returning to office in January. Trump installed gold decorations throughout the Oval Office, and he paved over the lawn of the Rose Garden to create a patio similar to the setting at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

The massive ballroom would dwarf those alterations. Images of heavy machinery tearing into the White House's 120-year-old East Wing to make way for the project ignited condemnation, as critics accused Trump of plowing ahead without proper review.

“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else,” the National Trust's lawsuit said.

The group in its request for a temporary restraining order said the project has already caused "irreversible damage" to the White House and its grounds.

The administration in a filing on Monday said the project was lawful and followed in a long line of presidential renovations, including Franklin D. Roosevelt's construction of the East Wing itself. The filing said the ballroom was needed for state functions, its design was still evolving and above-ground construction was not planned until April, making an emergency order unnecessary.

"The President possesses statutory authority to modify the structure of his residence, and that authority is supported by background principles of Executive power," the filing said.

The lawsuit said Trump failed to gather public input and ignored statutes requiring consultation with the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts before tearing down the East Wing and starting work on the ballroom.