A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered construction work to halt on President Donald Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom.
U.S. District Senior Judge Richard Leon issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, preventing “any action in furtherance of the physical development of the proposed ballroom at the former site of the East Wing of the White House.”
The order goes into effect in 14 days, giving the administration the opportunity to appeal.
That means demolition, site work, foundation work, excavation or any other construction-related work must pause, pending approval of the project by Congress, per Leon’s ruling.
“In my view [the applicable U.S. statute] is most naturally read to require some form of authorization from Congress to construct a building, and an appropriation of funds-either a lump sum for construction or a specific appropriation for a particular project-would easily satisfy that requirement,” Leon wrote in his decision’s memorandum.
The project is being funded by private donations, according to the White House. When first announced, Trump said the ballroom project would not interfere with the East Wing, before excavators razed century-old walls in October.
The project has dominated headlines, often from detractors. On Sunday, The New York Times ran a piece where architects picked apart the design, calling the ballroom’s size “unnecessary” and critiquing aspects of the layout, such as the location of entrances.
Leon’s ruling is at least a temporary victory for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to conserving historic structures. The member-based organization was founded in 1949 by congressional charter.
“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,” Leon wrote in his memorandum. “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 president took to Truth Social, his social media platform, to rail against the National Trust. The organization has also sued Trump over putting his name on the Kennedy Center.
“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,” Trump posted.
In July, the White House announced that Bethesda, Maryland-based Clark Construction would head the construction team and Dallas-based AECOM would lead the engineering team. Neither firm responded to Construction Dive’s request for comment on the judge’s ruling by the time of publication.
