The Trump administration filed an emergency motion to restore White House ballroom reconstruction, warning “time is of the essence” and saying President Donald Trump and his staff’s “security and safety” are at risk by the judge’s “untenable” ruling.
In the filing, Justice Department lawyers said the partially built project includes “deep Top Secret excavations, foundations, and structures” that must be completed quickly to protect sensitive construction and security features from exposure.
“This order is untenable and must be stayed in that the building is under construction, with deep Top Secret excavations, foundations, and structures, already built, and ready to receive heavily fortified, for security reasons, steel, bullet, ballistic, and blast proof glass, and drone proof roofing materials, which must be finished quickly, and not allowed to be exposed to the conditions and elements of an open construction site,” Friday night’s motion urges.
“Time is of the essence!”
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The appeal asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to stay U.S. District Judge Richard Leon’s order halting the project, which Leon ruled cannot proceed without congressional approval.
The administration argues the judge himself acknowledged that work needed to secure the White House grounds and protect the president and staff can continue.
“In granting this shocking, unprecedented, and improper injunction, one that could have been sought long ago, prior to the start of construction (in that there was full knowledge, through large scale media attention and publicity, that the White House ballroom was planned to be built, and there would have been a great deal of time for them to object, long before the start of construction, even though their objection would likewise have been baseless and frivolous), the district court took the erroneous, sweeping view that Congress did not authorize the ballroom construction at the White House — yet correctly allows construction ‘necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House and its grounds, including the ballroom construction site, and provide for the personal safety of the President and his staff,’” the DOJ argued.
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Also, the lawyers wrote, the judge ignored the administration’s overtures to have him visit the site to see the privately funded $400 million project.
“The judge was given an opportunity to see the construction taking place at the site, but surprisingly, never responded to our invitation,” Trump Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate wrote.
Preservationists challenging the construction say the administration unlawfully bypassed federal review and authorization requirements, but the DOJ rejected the judge’s claims that congressional approval is needed for a privately funded ballroom.
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“For decades, Congress has vested the President with overlapping statutory authorities that allow the President to make the improvements he deems necessary to White House grounds and structures,” Shumate wrote. “Yet, a district judge ordered the President to halt ongoing reconstruction of the East Wing of the White House by April 14, leaving a massive excavation and structurally completed site adjacent to the now open and exposed Executive Mansion and threatening grave national-security harms to the White House, the President and his family, and the President’s staff.”
“Almost 400 Million Dollars of private donations and contributions (No taxpayer dollars are being used to build this long sought, and desperately needed, ballroom!) have already been committed, or spent, in the purchase of heavy, large scale, and other types of building materials. The path to this injunction confirms its unfairness, untenability, and danger to the White House and the people working and living within its walls,” he added.
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The new motion filed by the National Park Service said the federal district court lacks the constitutional authority “to entertain this suit, which rests on a single pedestrian’s subjective architectural feelings.”
The initial lawsuit against the construction was brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit organization, alleging Trump exceeded his authority when he razed the historic East Wing and launched construction on the new building.
Friday’s motion argues the claims are “legally baseless” and “no Trust member has standing.”
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“The President has complete authority to renovate the White House,” Shumate concluded.
The East Wing was originally built in 1902 and expanded four decades later during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency.
The ballroom is part of Trump’s broader push to reshape Washington’s monumental core, which also includes plans for a 250-foot (76-meter) arch and changes at the Trump Kennedy Center.
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“I would like to thank the hardworking Commissioners and Staff of the National Capital Planning Commission, who just voted overwhelmingly, 8-1, to approve the magnificent White House Ballroom now rising on this Hallowed Ground,” Trump wrote Thursday night on Truth Social.
“I am pleased to announce that even Board Member Senator Rand Paul, known as an extraordinarily difficult vote, voted a strong YES,” Trump said. “For more than 150 years, every President has dreamt about having a Ballroom at the White House to accommodate people for Grand Parties, State Visits, and even, in the Modern Day, Inaugurations.”
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“I am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project, which is on time and under budget, underway,” the president added. “When completed, it will be the Greatest and Most Beautiful Ballroom of its kind anywhere in the World, and a fabulous complement to our Beautiful and Storied White House!”
Trump has lamented legal challenges to his administration’s agenda, rebuking “rogue judges” siding with “baseless” Democrat lawyers and lawsuits.
“In the Ballroom case, the Judge said we have to get Congressional approval,” Trump wrote this week on Truth Social. “He is WRONG! Congressional approval has never been given on anything, in these circumstances, big or small, having to do with construction at the White House.”
Reuters contributed to this report.