President Donald Trump is taking his $400 million White House ballroom fight to the Supreme Court after two federal appeals judges said Congress, not the president, gets the final say on the project.
The Friday ruling froze above-ground work on the proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom, which replaced the demolished East Wing, while leaving the Trump administration 14 days to seek emergency relief from the high court.
Trump answered on Truth Social by attacking the decision as both a security danger and an insult to the presidency.
“This decision, made after much of the work has been done and paid for, is a National Security Threat at the highest level. It is also a National Disgrace,” Trump wrote.
The 2-1 decision came from a three-judge panel that upheld an earlier order stopping above-ground construction. The same ruling allowed underground national security facilities and certain safety and security work to continue.
Judges Patricia Millett and Bradley Garcia sided against Trump. Judge Neomi Rao dissented.
Trump quickly turned the court fight into a political one, pointing out that Millett was appointed by Barack Obama and Garcia by Joe Biden, while Rao was appointed by him.
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He singled out the two judges in his Friday night post, calling them “one appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, the other by Sleepy Joe Biden.”
The appeals court’s majority opinion framed the East Wing demolition and ballroom plan as a constitutional problem, not simply a renovation dispute.
“We are aware of no instance in American history in which a President unilaterally and using privately collected funds demolished substantial portions of the White House that Congress authorized to be built and American taxpayers paid for. Until now,” the judges wrote.
The court also rejected the idea that the executive branch could press forward on its own because the project involved private money.
“Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help,” the majority wrote.
The judges added that Congress had not given the executive branch unrestricted power to remake the White House around one president’s preferences.
“Congress has not ceded unfettered authority to the Executive Branch to dramatically redesign, reshape, and reconstruct the White House – the People’s House – to fit a particular President’s desires,” the majority wrote.
Trump bristled at one part of the ruling that described each president as a temporary occupant of the White House.
“We are not tenants, who pay rent and do all other things that a tenant must do, we are PRESIDENTS, elected by the people of the United States of America,” Trump wrote.
He argued that presidents have the authority to “fix, renovate, secure, protect, and beautify the White House grounds,” saying the complex has been “built and rebuilt, renovated and rerenovated, repaired and, simply, MADE BETTER” many times since 1792 without needing permission from Congress.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued the National Park Service last year after the East Wing was torn down, arguing that the administration needed congressional authorization before moving ahead with the ballroom plan.
The Trump administration had not asked Congress for permission, a point the court majority noted in its decision.
The president’s initial response earlier Friday focused on standing, safety and the cost of the project.
“The Circuit Court’s decision, which is totally wrong on the vital subject of STANDING, of which the plaintiff has none, severely jeopardizes the lives and welfare of the people who work, and will be working, at the White House — including all future Presidents of the United States, and their families, as well as the lives of all those visiting, such as Heads of State and other Dignitaries, and all Americans who wish to visit the historic, beautiful Executive Mansion,” Trump wrote.
He also said the ballroom is ahead of schedule, under budget and being built without taxpayer money.
The project, Trump wrote, “is a Gift from President Trump and Great Patriots of the United States of America.”
“There will be no expense to the American Taxpayer. This unjust decision must be overturned by the Supreme Court in its entirety,” he added.
The East Wing project had already been interrupted twice during the legal fight before Friday’s appeals court decision.
Before the ruling, Trump posted an aerial image of work at the White House site and said the project remained on budget and ahead of schedule. In a Tuesday Truth Social post, he said the underground military complex would include a drone port, though the structure was not yet visible in the photo because the steel had already been fabricated and would be installed soon.
“We will be immediately appealing to the United States Supreme Court,” Trump said after the ruling.
The ballroom fight was not Trump’s only clash over a federal landmark Friday.
He also pressed the Justice Department to revisit its decision to drop criminal charges against people accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Trump urged U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro to “re-visit her hastily made decision,” even though Pirro’s office has said contractors involved in renovation work on the national monument were responsible for the damage.
The president shared a screenshot of an X post from freelance photographer Andrew Leyden, who wrote that he had seen “cuts in the expansion joints on the side of the Reflecting Pool.”
“The material was cut right where the video tape showed, for 300 feet or more. People were on their knees with their hands in the water at the exact location of the ‘slashes,’” Trump wrote. “Additionally, there were witnesses to the VANDALISM, and the flexible areas of the material were cut with a knife.”
The Justice Department had filed a nolle prosequi for three people accused of vandalizing the pool, meaning prosecutors were no longer seeking charges. Charges were also dropped against David Hearn, a three-time Olympic canoeist.
Trump had already criticized Pirro to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, saying she “folded like an umbrella” and “choked.”
The comments fueled speculation about Pirro’s job security, while Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche referred questions about the matter back to Trump.
