A federal judge on Thursday issued a new order halting construction of President Donald Trump's much-touted new White House ballroom, finding the administration was using fancy footwork to try to sidestep his previous ruling.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon had previously issued an order halting the $400 million project until the White House got it approved by Congress, with an exception for "actions strictly necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House and its grounds.” That specifically includes an underground bunker and security measures being put in place at the site under the former East Wing structure.
Trump argued that the exception also meant the whole 90,000-square-foot ballroom could be built, because the entire project is necessary for the safety and security of the White House. Leon disagreed.
“Defendants argue that the entire ballroom construction project, from tip to tail, falls within the safety-and-security exception and therefore may proceed unabated. That is neither a reasonable nor a correct reading of my Order!” Leon, a noted fan of exclamation marks, wrote. “It is, to say the least, incredible, if not disingenuous, that Defendants now argue that my Order does not stop ballroom construction because of the safety-and-security exception!”
"I cannot possibly agree," Leon added.
National security, Leon writes, “is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity.”
The president ripped Leon on Truth Social later Thursday, touting his ballroom plans and calling the George W. Bush appointee a "Trump hating" judge "who has gone out of his way to undermine national security."
Trump said the ruling "means that no future President, living in the White House without this Ballroom, can ever be Safe and Secure at Events, Future Inaugurations, or Global Summits."
"This is a mockery to our Court System! The Ballroom is deeply important to our National Security, and no Judge can be allowed to stop this Historic and Militarily Imperative Project," he wrote.
The judge's ruling threw cold water on Trump's claims of immediate danger, and noted that the White House has said the project won't be finished until 2028. The "ballroom’s planned security features are still months, if not years, away from being realized-belying Defendants’ argument that an inability to implement those features now imposes irreparable harm," Leon wrote.
The order does not take effect for seven days, giving the government time to appeal — which the administration notified the judge it was doing within hours of his order being issued.
Leon's ruling clarified "the scope of the injunction" he issued last month, which a federal appeals court had ordered him to do last week following an earlier appeal by the government.
The order “does not prohibit below-ground construction, including below-ground construction of national security facilities, as well as above-ground construction short of constructing the proposed above-ground ballroom that is strictly necessary to cover, secure, and protect such national security facilities, provided that any such construction will not lock in the above-ground size and scale of the ballroom,” Leon wrote.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Carol Quillen, the CEO of the group that filed the suit, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said in a statement, “We are pleased the court upheld the preliminary injunction and halted above-ground construction of the White House ballroom until Congress approves the project.”
The preservation group's suit sought to block the president's pet project pending congressional approval, contending that he lacked the authority to launch the massive construction project on his own.
Leon agreed and issued a preliminary injunction, which the administration appealed.
The Justice Department adapted an argument that Trump made after the ruling — that the whole project could proceed because it's necessary for national security.
Administration lawyers asked the judge to adopt their position, and “clarify that under the safety-and-security exception, Defendants may proceed with construction of the East Wing project as scheduled because the entire project advances critical national-security objectives as an integrated whole.”
That’s because “a bunker or bomb shelter cannot serve its purpose without adequate above-ground cover," they argued.
The preservation group argued in response that the administration’s position was a “brazen contortion of the laws of vocabulary,” and noted the administration had previously contended the bunker and underground facilities that were being built were separate from the ballroom.
That position changed after the judge’s ruling, the group said. “Bunkers, apparently, are only as good as the 90,000-square-foot, 40- foot-ceiling ballrooms on top of them,” the trust said. The group had objected to the underground work.
