Congress must approve Trump ballroom, judge finds

David Jordan, CQ-Roll Call on Mar 31, 2026

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s planned ballroom on the former site of the White House’s East Wing cannot move forward without authorization from Congress, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Richard J. Leon said when issuing a preliminary injunction on Tuesday.

Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, found that the nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation, the plaintiff in the case, was likely to succeed with its argument that the Trump administration would overstep its statutory and constitutional authority if it moved forward with the project.

Leon said the Trump administration’s arguments assumed that “Congress has granted nearly unlimited power to the President to construct anything, anywhere on federal land in the District of Columbia, regardless of the source of funds.”

“This clearly is not how Congress and former Presidents have managed the White House for centuries, and this Court will not be the first to hold that Congress has ceded its powers in such a significant fashion!” Leon said.

Leon also rejected the Trump administration’s argument that delaying construction would “imperil national security and expose the White House to damage,” referring to it as “grasping for straws.”

The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed the lawsuit in December, arguing that Trump and administration officials were continuing to violate the Administrative Procedure Act and National Environmental Policy Act by moving forward with construction of the ballroom after the demolition of the East Wing, which they also argued was illegal.

Leon’s order did leave open the possibility that Trump could go to Congress “at any time” to obtain the authorization for the ballroom, adding that “Congress may even choose to appropriate funds for the ballroom, or at least decide that some other funding scheme is acceptable.”

The White House has raised the $400 million needed to complete the ballroom from individuals and corporations, including Amazon, Meta, Altria, NextEra Energy and Lockheed Martin.

In February, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts voted 6-0 in favor of Trump’s design. The president had filled the commission with his own appointees months ahead of the vote.

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