Among all the decisions, measures, and initiatives that have defined Donald Trump’s second term, from trade policy to immigration, including the dismissal of thousands of officials, conflicts with universities, or complaints against the media, there is one that has always held a special place in his speech and heart: the great White House ballroom.
Since he presented the project, a pharaonic work costing hundreds of millions of dollars and with brutal visual symbolism, Trump has spoken about the event hall with unusual enthusiasm even for him. It was not simply an improvement, an expansion of the presidential complex, with space for receptions and the latest security measures, but an obsession. In impromptu appearances, interviews, campaign events, and even meetings with foreign leaders, he always found a way to return to the same topic: the size, the ceiling height, the marbles, the capacity for thousands of guests, or what it would look like once finished.
It is, without a doubt, his flagship project, part of the physical legacy with which he wants to be remembered, alongside his name on airports, buildings, or bills, or a triumphal arch. And for that reason, the position of the courts, which once again have reminded him that he is a president, not a king, and that he must consult and receive permission from the legislature for his actions (such as tariffs or wars), carries enormous weight.
This Friday, in a two-to-one decision, the three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling issued in April by another federal judge, which established that most of the ballroom construction must stop until Congress expressly authorizes the project. At least everything that is above ground. “The president is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House and its executive residence”, wrote judges Patricia A. Millett and Bradley N. Garcia, appointed by Obama and Biden, in their majority opinion. Judge Neomi Rao, appointed by Trump, issued a dissenting vote.
The decision, however, includes a 14-day stay to allow the White House to appeal to the Supreme Court, the final instance. And it clarifies that the Administration still has permission to continue underground work, as well as elements affecting national security, such as the complete renovation of the presidential bunker.
The project promoted by Trump goes far beyond what will be most visible and controversial, the ballroom of 8,000 square meters and an estimated cost of 400 million dollars, which in theory has been financed with private donations from friends and companies. The demolition of the East Wing of the White House is part of a comprehensive reconstruction that includes new offices for the first lady, support spaces and medical facilities, security improvements, and above all, the replacement of the historic presidential bunker (the Presidential Emergency Operations Center) with a much larger and more modern underground military complex. But while the White House maintains that the ballroom would be financed with private donations, the security works and the new underground complex would require public funding, with proposals in Congress amounting to 1 billion dollars for the security facilities associated with the project.
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And the Court states that Congress should have had and must have a voice. Something important because right now the Republicans control both chambers, but it is likely that in November they will lose at least one of them. “The decision to build or not a large ballroom belongs to Congress, and it is not a matter of Executive self-authorization”, the court states today. “This decision has nothing to do with whether the proposed ballroom is politically advisable or not. This ruling does not even necessarily imply that the defendants cannot build it (…) What it does mean is that the defendants cannot do so without obtaining Congress’s authorization, as required by the Constitution and laws.”
A necessity or a luxury?
The case started with a complaint from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which challenged the project in December, a week after the White House unexpectedly finished demolishing the East Wing to build a ballroom with a capacity for 999 people, according to President Trump. Government lawyers argued that the biggest structural modification of the White House in 70 years included crucial security measures to protect against various threats, such as drones, ballistic missiles, and biological risks. And when there was an assassination attempt against Trump at a Washington hotel during the White House correspondents’ dinner, they insisted on the need for those facilities. “These improvements, modifications, and renovations are essential to protect the president, his family, and his staff, as well as the White House itself, and the entire project stems from them,” they argued before the panel.
But the response from the preservation group’s lawyers was that the absence of a ballroom in the White House does not constitute a national security emergency. And the panel seems to agree. In spring, Trump had already lashed out at the first magistrate, who was appointed by George W. Bush, calling him a “judge who hates Trump” and who “has worked to undermine national security and ensure that this great gift to the United States is delayed or not built.”
White House lawyers argued in June before the panel that federal courts should not have the power to stop the ballroom construction and that Trump had authority to make modifications on White House grounds. But now everything is, once again, in the hands of the Supreme Court. A court with a Republican majority but one that Trump has targeted, after some painful defeats, such as those on tariffs and citizenship rights of those born in the country to foreign parents, with or without papers.
