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\n\tA federal appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump lacks the authority to build a $400 million ballroom at the White House without congressional approval.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with historic preservationists who sued to halt construction of the 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the site where the White House\u2019s East Wing stood before its demolition last fall. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIn response to the ruling, President Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that he \u201cwill be immediately appealing to the United States Supreme Court\u201d and described the decision as \u201chorrendous, politically motivated, and unlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFriday\u2019s ruling marks the second legal setback this week for the president\u2019s construction plans. A recent National Park Service assessment concluded that the 250-foot triumphal arch proposed by Trump could compromise the historical integrity of dozens of landmarks within the Memorial Avenue Corridor, such as breaking the symbolic alignment between the Lincoln Memorial, Memorial Bridge and Arlington House.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIn a 2-1 decision, the appeals court affirmed a lower court\u2019s finding that the White House \u201cvery likely\u201d lacked the authority to proceed with the ballroom project. In its opinion, the judges wrote that Congress has \u201cfull constitutional control over federal property and the funding of its maintenance and development,\u201d citing the \u201cabsence of any express or implied authorization.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tNoting that the demolition of the East Wing has no precedent in American history, the court continued: \u201cEach President is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House and its Executive Residence. The President has no\u2014and claims no\u2014constitutionally assigned authority over that property, which is designed and maintained for the use of all Presidents, current and future, and for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe judges stayed their ruling for two weeks to give the administration time to appeal to the US Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
\n\tPresident Trump claimed Friday that the court\u2019s decision \u201cseverely jeopardizes the lives and welfare of the people who work, and will be working, at the White House\u201d because it would disrupt \u201cthe single, integrated project\u201d of which the ballroom is a part. He said that broader project includes the construction of \u201cbomb shelters\u201d and \u201cdrone-proof\u201d ceilings.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe appeals court\u2019s ruling explicitly leaves in place a lower court decision allowing construction of the presidential bunker to continue.<\/p>\n
\n\tBrent Leggs, the president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said in a statement that he was \u201cpleased\u201d with the ruling.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis decision is particularly meaningful as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and advocate for renewed protections for historic preservation,\u201d Leggs said. \u201cThe White House, a global landmark that symbolizes American identity and the ideals of democracy, belongs to the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn March, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon forcefully rejected the Trump administration\u2019s arguments for building a ballroom on the former site of the East Wing in an opinion that included at least 17 exclamation points. The judge concluded \u201cthat the National Trust is likely to succeed on the merits because no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2287639764.jpg?w=1024″] A federal appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump lacks the authority to build a $400 million ballroom at the White House without congressional approval. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with historic preservationists who sued to halt construction of the 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the […]<\/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-2083376","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\/2083376","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=2083376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2083376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2083376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2083376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}