WASHINGTON: A US judge on Tuesday (Mar 31) ordered a halt to construction of President Donald Trump’s massive White House ballroom, which has already seen the historic East Wing completely torn down.
Trump is “steward” of the White House but “he is not, however, the owner!” wrote Judge Richard Leon, saying that congressional approval would be needed for the project.
Leon was ruling in response to a legal challenge from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, a nonprofit organisation that seeks to protect historic buildings.
Trump, a billionaire real estate developer, has made no secret of his passion for the ballroom project.
“He’s so wrong,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, when asked about the ruling.
He insisted Congress did not need to be involved in the project, particularly because it is to be paid by donors and not taxpayers.
Underlining its high importance, his administration filed an appeal just hours after the ruling was issued.
Trump shocked many last year by having an entire section of the White House abruptly bulldozed, claiming there has long been a need for a new large-scale events centre on the property.
Since then, the 79-year-old Republican has rarely missed an opportunity to discuss the project, frequently meandering in mid-speech on other topics to riff about the architectural details of the proposed facility.
On Tuesday, Trump railed on social media against the National Trust, calling the group “a Radical Left Group of Lunatics”.
The ballroom would be “the finest Building of its kind anywhere in the World”, he insisted.
The ballroom would be Trump’s biggest mark yet on the US capital since his return to office in January 2025.