WASHINGTON — A federal judge appears to be leaning toward hitting the pause button on the White House ballroom's construction.
While U.S. District Judge Richard Leon did not rule from the bench Thursday, promising a decision next month, his comments during arguments left little doubt about what way he was leaning.
Attorney Thad Heuer, representing the nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation, a group that works to protect U.S. historic sites, argued that the president does not have the constitutional authority to tear down the East Wing of the White House and construct a ballroom.
“He’s not the owner” of the White House, Heuer said.
Leon appeared to agree, saying, “He’s the steward.”
There was a great deal of discussion about the funding mechanism for the project. Leon compared it several times to a “Rube Goldberg Contraption,” because of the novel way the Trump administration is avoiding direct congressional authorization for the project.
The administration cites several federal statutes — and hundreds of millions of dollars in private funding — to argue that the construction is legal.
“Congress does not hide elephants in mouse holes,” Heuer suggested about several million dollars in congressional appropriations earmarked for “alterations and improvements” that the Trump administration argues allows for the construction of a $400 million ballroom.
Justice Department attorney Yaakov Roth, representing the Trump administration, said when he was asked why Trump didn’t ask Congress for funding and therefore authorization to build, “The president didn’t want $400 million in taxpayer money to be used for this.”
“He wanted to use donations,” Roth said.
NBCUniversal's parent company, Comcast Corp., is among the donors.
Roth also cited the White House pool President Gerald Ford built in 1975 and the White House Tennis Complex as two structures on the White House grounds that didn’t get direct congressional authorization.
Leon appeared skeptical of that line of argument. “The ’70s Ford pool? You compare that to ripping down the East Wing?” Leon asked. “C’mon, be serious.”
Roth claimed the Trump administration would be “irreparably harmed” if Leon were to order construction paused.
“Are we going to suspend construction in the middle?” Roth asked. He said a pause would expose the existing building to the elements and create national security concerns.
As for whether the White House bunker construction — which is ongoing underneath the ballroom site — could continue if the ballroom construction doesn’t, Roth claimed, “It can’t be divided that way.”
Roth nodded to the political limitations of the president’s actions. “Nobody has touched the Executive Mansion,” he said.
“That is the core site,” Roth added.
A White House official said this month that the administration is aiming for a final presentation of the ballroom to the National Capital Planning Commission in March.
