Judge Rejects Claim That Trump Needs Ballroom for Security (3)

A Washington federal judge barred President Donald Trump from moving forward with above-ground work on a 90,000-square foot White House ballroom, rejecting administration arguments that the entire project was essential to national security.

Senior Judge Richard Leon of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, who ruled to halt the ballroom project in March, said in a Thursday opinion that it is “incredible, if not disingenuous” for the government to argue his ruling permits ballroom construction because of an exception carved out for safety and security work.

He clarified that the ruling prevents the White House from above-ground ballroom construction, but allows below-ground construction to continue on “national security facilities, work necessary to provide for presidential security, and construction necessary to protect and secure the White House and the construction site itself.”

He also said some above-ground work could proceed so long as it is “strictly necessary to cover, secure, and protect” the below-ground security facilities, such as bunkers or military installations.

“The Court has taken Defendants’ invocation of national security and presidential security seriously throughout this case, which is why I included a safety-and-security exception in my original Order,” Leon wrote. “But national security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity.”

The judge delayed the effect of his order for seven days. The Justice Department filed its notice of appeal to the US Court of Appeals to the DC Circuit within hours of the ruling Thursday.

President Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post Thursday, called Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, a “Trump Hating” judge “who has gone out of his way to undermine National Security, and to make sure that this Great Gift to America gets delayed, or doesn’t get built.”

“This highly political Judge, and his illegal overreach, is out of control, and costing our Nation greatly. This is a mockery to our Court System!” Trump wrote. “The Ballroom is deeply important to our National Security, and no Judge can be allowed to stop this Historic and Militarily Imperative Project.”

Leon issued the clarification less than a week after a divided panel for the Washington federal appeals court sent the case back to his courtroom to further explain his ruling and the scope of his security exception.

Leon ruled on March 31 that Trump didn’t have authority for the project and must stop construction, months after the administration demolished the historic East Wing to make way for the new ballroom. But the judge exempted “construction necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House.”

He also paused the effect of his ruling for two weeks, and the appeals court had extended that pause until April 17.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which filed the lawsuit challenging the ballroom construction project, asked the judge to clarify that his exception shouldn’t apply to the entire ballroom, as Trump suggested it would during Oval Office remarks.

Trump’s Justice Department responded in a brief that the White House could proceed with the project as scheduled “because the entire project advances critical national-security objectives as an integrated whole.”

The project includes national-security features, such as bunkers and bomb-shelters, and these features “cannot exist in isolation” and require the ballroom structure to serve as “above-ground cover,” the government lawyers wrote. They also argued that leaving an exposed, dormant excavation site where the East Wing was demolished would also pose “serious safety and security threats” that can only be addressed by continuing construction.

“The Court is not positioned to second-guess these determinations about what is needed to ensure presidential security, let alone to superintend the construction process,” the government’s brief said.

But the fact that the structure will later include security feature doesn’t bring the project within the scope of his exception, Leon said in Thursday’s opinion. He also noted that these features “are still months, if not years, away” from being installed, undercutting the administration’s claims that it would be imminently harmed by halting construction while litigation proceeds.

Attorneys for the Trust had asked the judge to permit below-ground work on a bunker below the ballroom, but prohibit above-ground development of the ballroom itself.

They claimed the Trump administration hadn’t explained why above-ground cover for the bunker needs to be a 70-foot-tall ballroom, as opposed to “simple at-grade slab.” They also also criticized the Justice Department for advancing “yet another brazen contortion of the laws of vocabulary,” referencing a remark Leon made at a March hearing, in an attempt to “ignore” the lower court’s injunction.

Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the National Trust, said in a statement Thursday that the nonprofit is “pleased the court upheld the preliminary injunction and halted above-ground construction of the White House ballroom until Congress approves the project.”

The ballroom project is part of Trump’s broader efforts to make his mark on Washington’s historic landmarks.

The administration has also been sued over Trump’s move to close the Kennedy Center for renovations, his stated plans to paint the granite exterior of the 19th-century Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which houses offices for White House staff, and his proposal for a 250-foot arch in Washington’s Memorial Circle, among other changes.

The case is National Trust for Historic Preservation in the US v. NPS, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-04316.