Judge blocks above-ground construction of Trump's White House ballroom, administration appeals

A federal judge in a revised order on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from above-ground construction work on the controversial proposed White House ballroom.

But Judge Richard Leon's order allows the administration to continue below-ground construction, including work related to national security facilities.

Leon's order is also allowing above-ground construction "that is strictly necessary to cover, secure, and protect such national security facilities," as long as that construction does not "lock in the above-ground size and scale of the ballroom," according to his injunction in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The Trump administration quickly appealed the order to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Leon had paused his order from taking effect for seven days.

President Donald Trump raged about Leon's order in a Truth Social post.

"A Trump Hating, Washington, D.C. District Court Judge, a man 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, is attempting to prevent future Presidents and World Leaders from having a safe and secure large scale Meeting Place, or Ballroom, one with Bomb Shelters," Trump wrote.

The order comes five days after the Court of Appeals told Leon to clarify a prior order he issued on March 31 that enjoined the Trump administration from taking any action to build the planned $400 million, 90,000 square-foot ballroom where the White House's East Wing once stood. The East Wing was demolished last year to make way for the project at Trump's behest.

The appeals court specifically told Leon to reconsider the potential national security implications of blocking the construction.

The administration had told the appeals court that Leon's injunction was "threatening grave national-security harms to the White House, the President and his family, and the President's staff."

Leon, in an opinion on Thursday, said, "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."

"But national security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity, and belated assertions that the above-ground ballroom is 'inseparable' from an array of security features ... are not an occasion for this Court to reweigh the equities or reconsider the preliminary injunction!" the judge wrote.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is suing the Trump administration to block the ballroom from being built.

Leon, in two prior decisions, had declined requests by that group to halt the project.

But in his March 31 ruling to issue an injunction against the ballroom, Leon said that no law "come close" to giving Trump the power to build such a structure at the White House without authorization by Congress.

That injunction excluded work that is "strictly 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 President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner," Leon wrote in his opinion explaining his ruling that day.

In his amended order on Thursday, the judge slapped down arguments by the Trump administration that the entire ballroom project could proceed on national security grounds.

"Defendants argue that the entire ballroom construction project, from tip to tail, falls within the safety-and-security exception and therefore may proceed unabated," Leon wrote in the opinion issued on Thursday, with the amended injunction. "That is neither a reasonable nor a correct reading of my Order!"

"The accompanying opinion stated that 'the ballroom construction project must stop until Congress authorizes its completion,' " Leon noted.

"It is, to say the least, incredible, if not disingenuous, that Defendants now argue that my Order does not stop ballroom construction because of the safety-and-security exception!"

The judge said that the new order, in enjoining above-ground construction from proceeding, directly addresses the risk that the National Trust would suffer irreparable harm by building of the ballroom.

And, "The exception for underground national security facilities does not include the proposed ballroom because Defendants themselves distinguished between below-ground and above-ground construction, stating that "the below-surface work is driven by national security concerns independent of the above-grade construction," the judge said.