Judge orders Trump administration to halt White House ballroom construction – National
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington granted a preservationist group’s request for a preliminary injunction that temporarily halts U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project.
Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, wrote, “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.”
“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!”
Leon suspended enforcement of his order for 14 days, acknowledging that the case “raises novel and weighty issues, that halting an ongoing construction project “may raise logistical issues.” He also recognized that the administration is likely to appeal his decision. The judge also ruled that any construction work that’s necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House is exempt from the scope of the injunction.
Get breaking National news
Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.
Trump, in a social media post, criticized the trust for suing him over a project that he said is being built at no cost to taxpayers. “Doesn’t make much sense, does it?” he wrote.
“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 wrote.
“I then get sued by them over the renovation of the dilapidated and structurally unsound former Kennedy Center, now, The Trump Kennedy Center (A show of Bipartisan Unity, a Republican and Democrat President!), where all I am doing is fixing, cleaning, running, and ‘sprucing up’ a terribly maintained, for many years, Building, but a Building of potentially great importance,” he continued.
Trump referred to the The National Trust for Historic Preservation as “a Radical Left Group of Lunatics whose funding was stopped by Congress in 2005.”
He said the trust “is not suing the Federal Reserve for a Building which has been decimated and destroyed, inside and out, by an incompetent and possibly corrupt Fed Chairman.”
“The once magnificent Building is BILLIONS over budget, may never be completed, and may never open. All of the beautiful walls inside have been ripped down, never to be built again, but the National ‘Trust’ for Historic Preservation never did anything about it! Or, have they sued on Governor Gavin Newscum’s ‘RAILROAD TO NOWHERE’ in California that is BILLIONS over Budget and, probably, will never open or be used,” he continued.
“So, the White House Ballroom, and The Trump Kennedy Center, which are under budget, ahead of schedule, and will be among the most magnificent Buildings of their kind anywhere in the World, gets sued by a group that was cut off by Government years ago, but all of the many DISASTERS in our Country are left alone to die,” Trump’s post concluded.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to obtain an order pausing the ballroom project until it undergoes multiple independent reviews and receives approval from Congress.
The White House announced the ballroom project over the summer.
By late October, Trump had demolished the East Wing to make way for a ballroom that he said would fit 999 people. The White House said private donations, including from Trump himself, would pay for the planned construction of a 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-metre) ballroom.
Trump proceeded with the project before seeking input from a pair of federal review panels, the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts. Trump has stocked both commissions with allies.
— with files from Global News’ Katie Scott
© 2026 The Canadian Press
Discover more from stock updates now
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
