{"id":574629,"date":"2026-04-01T06:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574629\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T06:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:59:09","slug":"judge-temporarily-halts-trumps-400m-white-house-ballroom-project-donald-trump-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574629\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge temporarily halts Trump\u2019s $400m White House ballroom project | Donald Trump News"},"content":{"rendered":"

District Judge Richard Leon says construction has to stop until Congress provides statutory authorisation.<\/p>\n

Published On 1 Apr 20261 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

A judge has ruled that US President Donald Trump cannot proceed with his planned $400m ballroom<\/a> on the site of the White House\u2019s demolished East Wing without approval from Congress.<\/p>\n

District Judge Richard Leon on Tuesday granted a request for a preliminary injunction filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation<\/a>, which sued after alleging Trump had exceeded his authority by razing the historic East Wing and launching construction on the new building.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 2 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

\u201cI have concluded that 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 Leon, an appointee of former Republican President George W Bush, wrote in the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!\u201d he said. \u201cUnless and until Congress blesses this project through statutory authorization, construction has to stop!\u201d<\/p>\n

Leon said the order does not affect \u201cconstruction necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House\u201d.<\/p>\n

His ruling keeps the 90,000 square-foot (8,360 square-metre) ballroom project on hold while the lawsuit continues.<\/p>\n

The judge said he was pausing his order for 14 days to allow the \u2060Trump administration to appeal. Hours later, the Justice Department filed an appeal at the Washington, DC-based US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.<\/p>\n

\"ArtistArtist renderings of the new White House East Wing and Ballroom [Jon Elswick\/AP]<\/p>\n

Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the National Trust, welcomed Leon\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a win for the American people on a project that forever impacts one of the most beloved and iconic places in our nation,\u201d Quillen said in a statement.<\/p>\n

In a social media post, Trump called the National Trust a group of left-wing \u201clunatics\u201d and said his ballroom is \u201cunder budget, ahead of schedule, being built at no cost to the Taxpayer, and will be the finest Building of its kind anywhere in the World\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Republican has championed the ballroom as a defining addition to the White House and a lasting symbol of his presidency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"District Judge Richard Leon says construction has to stop until Congress provides statutory authorisation. Published On 1 Apr…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1007,13444,1376,43,44,41,39,42,40,772],"class_list":{"0":"post-574629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-construction","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories","17":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}