The Supreme Court has authorized today the government of Donald Trump to continue building the ambitious ballroom it is working on in the east wing of the White House, halting an order from a federal judge that sought to stop the work at midnight on Friday after questioning the legality of the project.
The temporary order signed by the head of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, does not set a new date to rule definitively on the case, when the rest of the nine judges of the High Court intervene. It also makes no mention of the legality of the project that many in Washington consider an excessive use of authority by the president for not having obtained Congressional approval.
Trump, for his part, says his mega project will be “the largest military complex and ballroom in the world” and that anyone who opposes it is someone “very disloyal to our country.” In December, the National Trust for Historic Preservation sued the Government in December and managed to get a federal judge in Washington to order the project to be stopped until it had Congressional approval.
Trump unsuccessfully tried to have the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit overturn the judge’s ruling, Richard Leon. However, in early August, the court supported the judge. “It is up to Congress to decide whether or not to build a huge ballroom, and it is not a matter that the Executive can resolve on its own,” the Court declared.
Now, the real estate magnate has appealed to the Supreme Court, as he usually does whenever the courts get in the way of his plans, to ask to be allowed to continue with works that, according to him, are progressing at great speed, with 250 workers working 20 hours a day, seven days a week.
No one in Washington misses that the new ballroom is one of Trump’s obsessions, who considers it will be a centerpiece of his legacy. Announced in July 2025, the plan seeks to solve a problem that, according to the White House, administrations have dragged on for 150 years: the lack of a proper space for large events, which forced the installation of a tent a hundred meters from the main entrance every time there was a state reception. The new ballroom will have about 8,300 square meters and capacity for 650 seated guests, compared to the 200 that fit before in the previous space.
The cost, however, has not stopped growing. The initial figure handled was 200 million dollars, covered — according to the White House — by Trump himself and private donors. Months later that figure was already around 250 million, and by August 2026 several media reported that the set of remodeling projects in the White House would exceed 900 million dollars, financed partly with public funds and without Congressional approval. Among the reported donors are names like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Lockheed Martin.
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