[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/trump-ballroom.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tJust days after a federal judge put the kibosh on President Donald Trump\u2019s $400 million plan to renovate the White House with a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, the administration filed an emergency motion to undo the ruling.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn Friday, the Trump Administration filed a motion in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia arguing that US District Judge Richard Leon\u2019s decision to halt the project has left the White House \u201copen and exposed\u201d and \u201cthreaten[s] grave national security harms to the White House, the President and his family, and the President\u2019s staff,\u201d according to Reuters<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tLeon, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that construction must halt while a lawsuit brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States progresses through the courts. Leon did suspend enforcement of his order was for 14 days, to allow the Trump Administration to appeal the decision. He also reviewed the administration\u2019s national security argument and exempted any construction work necessary for the safety and security of the White House.<\/p>\n \n\tIn the motion, filed by the National Park Service, the administration argues that the federal district court doesn\u2019t have the constitutional authority \u201cto entertain this suit, which rests on a single pedestrian\u2019s subjective architectural feelings.\u201d It further called the Trust\u2019s claims in their lawsuit as \u201clegally baseless\u201d and asserts that the president \u201chas complete authority to renovate the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLeon, last week, did not agree with that assessment, saying in his opinion that he believes the National Trust lawsuit will \u201csucceed on the merits because no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have.\u201d In an opinion featuring 18 exclamation points, Leon dismantles each aspect of the administration\u2019s legal argument for the renovation authority, asserting that rests with Congress.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Trump administration had a few exclamation points of their own, writing \u201cTime is of the essence!\u201d in the emergency motion. It argued that the ballroom project will make a \u201cheavily fortified\u201d facility for the president, featuring bomb shelters, military installations, and a medical facility, per the Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tThree judges will review the motion, according to the Washington Post<\/em>: Obama appointee Patricia Ann Millett, Trump appointee Neomi Rao, and Biden appointee Bradley Garcia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/trump-admin-white-house-ballroom-national-security-risk-1234780061\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/trump-ballroom.jpg?w=1024″] Just days after a federal judge put the kibosh on President Donald Trump\u2019s $400 million plan to renovate the White House with a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, the administration filed an emergency motion to undo the ruling. On Friday, the Trump Administration filed a motion in the US Court of Appeals for the District […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1871371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1871371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1871371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1871371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1871371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}