President Donald Trump blasted a federal judge who halted construction of his $400 million White House ballroom.
Trump raged at U.S. District Judge Richard Leon on his social media platform, Truth Social, claiming, “the Judge said we have to get Congressional approval. He is WRONG!”
The meltdown came after Leon granted a request for a preliminary injunction by the National Trust Preservation Committee, which had accused the president of overstepping his authority to fast-track the controversial project.
“Congressional approval has never been given on anything, in these circumstances, big or small, having to do with construction at the White House,” Trump raged. “In this case, even less so, because the Ballroom is being built with Private Donations, no Federal Taxpayer Money!”
The ruling has put the controversial project under a cloud, at least for now.
“I have concluded that the National Trust is likely to succeed on the merits because no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have,” wrote Leon, who was appointed under Republican President George W. Bush.
“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!”
The decision to put the project on hold while Trust’s lawsuit continues enraged the president, who immediately appealed and, in another Truth Social post, called the Trust a “Radical Left Group of Lunatics whose funding was stopped by Congress in 2005.”
He also questioned why they had not sued the Federal Reserve over its multi-billion-dollar headquarters revamp, or California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is building what Trump described as a “railroad to nowhere.”
“The National Trust for Historic Preservation sues me for a Ballroom that is under budget, ahead of schedule, being built at no cost to the Taxpayer, and will be the finest Building of its kind anywhere in the World,” he lamented, noting that the Trust had also sued him over his Kennedy Center overhaul.
“Yet, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Radical Left Group of Lunatics whose funding was stopped by Congress in 2005, is not suing the Federal Reserve for a Building which has been decimated and destroyed, inside and out, by an incompetent and possibly corrupt Fed Chairman.”
“The once magnificent Building is BILLIONS over budget, may never be completed, and may never open. All of the beautiful walls inside have been ripped down, never to be built again, but the National “Trust” for Historic Preservation never did anything about it!"
The new ballroom will be privately funded by Trump and various ultra-wealthy corporate donors, including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Palantir.
Many of these companies benefit from lucrative government contracts or government deregulation.
Once built, the 90,000-square-foot space will accommodate up to 1,000 guests and dwarf the main White House building, which is about 55,000 square feet.
But despite insisting that the project would “not interfere” with the existing White House building, the plans have expanded substantially since they were announced—and so too has the original $100 million price tag.
Hours before the ruling, the president had posted pictures of the ballroom renderings on Truth Social—the same images he showed off to reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday when he confirmed the military was building a new “massive complex” underneath the White House as part of the project.
“The ballroom essentially becomes a shed [shield] for what’s being built under the military, including from drones, and including from any other thing,” Trump told them.
“The glass, or the windows, you see the big windows, the glass is extremely thick. It’s high-grade bulletproof glass, so all of the windows are bulletproof.”
The National Trust filed its lawsuit in December, weeks after Trump demolished the historic East Wing of the White House to make way for the project.
“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever—not President Trump, not President Biden, not anyone else,” said the group’s complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
“And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in.”
The White House, however, has consistently argued that the president “has full legal authority to modernize, renovate, and beautify the White House—just like all of his predecessors did.”
Leon’s ruling will go into effect in 14 days, and he acknowledged the administration is likely to appeal given the case “raises novel and weighty issues.”
Any construction work that’s necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House is exempt from the scope of the injunction, he added.
But while Trump was not impressed, First Lady Melania Trump, who the president says hates the sound of construction, may well be grateful for the reprieve.
“It makes me happy,” he said last week of hearing the project take shape.
“But my wife doesn’t love it,” he added.
National Trust president Carol Quillen said in a statement on Tuesday: “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.”
