Appeals Court Halts White House Ballroom Construction; Trump Vows a Supreme Court Appeal
A divided federal appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump's administration must stop building the $400 million White House ballroom because Congress never approved it — a ruling Trump called unjust and said he will appeal to the Supreme Court immediately.
WASHINGTON — The fight over the White House ballroom is headed to the Supreme Court. A divided federal appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump's administration must stop construction of the $400 million ballroom because Congress has not approved the project, the Associated Press reported. The 90,000-square-foot ballroom is rising where the White House's East Wing stood before Trump ordered its demolition last fall.
In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the historic preservationists who sued to stop the work. 'Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help,' the court wrote. The panel stayed its ruling for two weeks to give the administration time to appeal, and Trump said on social media that the administration will appeal immediately to the Supreme Court, calling the decision 'unjust.'
The ruling upholds an April 16 order from U.S. District Judge Richard Leon halting aboveground construction; Leon allowed underground work on a bunker and other national security facilities to continue, and the appeals court left that in place. Judges Patricia Millett and Bradley Garcia backed the decision; Judge Neomi Rao dissented. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued in December 2025, a week after the East Wing demolition was completed, said the decision affirmed 'the American people's right to voice their opinions about the historic places they cherish.'
Trump has argued that congressional permission is unnecessary because public money is not being used, saying he raised hundreds of millions of dollars from corporations and wealthy donors, including himself. The AP noted the administration had nevertheless requested $1 billion for the ballroom, which Congress refused in May. The ballroom ruling was the second construction setback for the administration this week: a National Park Service assessment found that a 250-foot triumphal arch Trump has proposed for a traffic circle between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery could compromise the historical significance of dozens of nearby sites.