A federal judge ordered the Trump administration March 31 to stop construction on a planned $400 million White House ballroom, ruling the project cannot proceed without congressional authorization.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction blocking the project, which would replace the demolished East Wing with a 90,000-square-foot ballroom designed to hold up to 999 people.
"The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations. He is not, however, the owner," Leon wrote in the ruling.
Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, argued that "no statute comes close" to giving the president authority to undertake the project without congressional sign-off. He delayed enforcement for 14 days to allow the administration to appeal, but warned that any above-ground construction during that window "is at risk of being taken down depending on the outcome of this case."
As Zeale News previously reported, Trump demolished the White House East Wing in October 2025 to make way for the project. The White House has said the ballroom would be funded entirely by private donations, including from Trump himself. The cost estimate has risen from $200 million when the project was announced to $400 million as of December 2025.
The judge’s decision stemmed from a lawsuit filed in December 2025 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which argued Trump bypassed legally required federal reviews and never conducted an environmental impact assessment required under federal law.
"The White House is arguably the most evocative building in our country and a globally recognized symbol of our American ideals," National Trust President Carol Quillen said in a December 2025 statement.
In a March 31 Truth Social post, Trump called the National Trust "a Radical Left Group of Lunatics" and defended the project as "under budget, ahead of schedule, being built at no cost to the Taxpayer."
The administration plans to appeal. The National Capital Planning Commission is scheduled to vote on the project April 3.