{"id":564914,"date":"2026-04-04T22:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T22:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564914\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T22:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T22:26:08","slug":"trump-asks-court-to-pause-order-halting-white-house-ballroom-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564914\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump asks court to pause order halting White House ballroom construction"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Trump administration is arguing that a judge\u2019s order to halt construction of a $400 million ballroom<\/a> creates a security risk for President Donald Trump as it asks a federal appeals court to pause the ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a motion filed Friday<\/a>, National Park Service lawyers say that the federal judge\u2019s order to suspend construction of the new facility is \u201cthreatening grave national-security harms to the White House, the President and his family, and the President\u2019s staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTime is of the essence!\u201d the lawyers write, citing materials that will be installed to make a \u201cheavily fortified\u201d facility. The ballroom construction also includes bomb shelters, military installations and a medical facility, according to the filing. The ballroom is part of President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> plans to quickly remake Washington.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington on Tuesday ordered the temporary pause of the construction project that has included demolishing the East Wing of the White House. He concluded that unless Congress approves the project, the preservationist group suing to stop it is likely to succeed on the merits of its claims because \u201cno statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge suspended enforcement of his order for 14 days acknowledging that the administration would appeal his decision.<\/p>\n

Leon\u2019s ruling and the appeal come the same week a key agency tasked<\/a> with approving construction on federal property in the Washington region gave final approval to the project.<\/p>\n

In his ruling Leon, who was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush, suspended enforcement of his order recognizing that \u201chalting an ongoing construction project may raise logistical issues.\u201d <\/p>\n

Leon also addressed national security in his ruling, saying that he reviewed information that the government privately submitted to him and concluded that halting construction wouldn\u2019t jeopardize national security. He exempted any construction work that is necessary for the safety and security of the White House from the scope of the injunction.<\/p>\n

Trump lashed out at the ruling, but also noted that it would allow work on underground bunkers and other security measures around the White House grounds to continue \u2014 even though those will be paid for by taxpayers. Trump has pledged that he, along with private donors, will cover the costs for the ballroom construction.<\/p>\n

But the National Park Service argues in its motion that the president has \u201ccomplete authority to renovate the White House\u201d and the current state of the grounds, which is an open construction site, make it harder to protect the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanvas tents, which are necessary without a ballroom, are significantly more vulnerable to missiles, drones, and other threats than a hardened national security facility,\u201d the motion says.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is asking the appeals court to make a decision on its request by Friday. It also asked that the 14-day suspension of Leon\u2019s order be extended by another two weeks so that the case can be taken to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Trump administration is arguing that a judge\u2019s order to halt construction of a $400…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,2302,3506,3505,12,793,12805,13490,5477,3,111,201965,21,26939,792,19,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":{"0":"post-564914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-dc-wire","11":"tag-district-of-columbia","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-george-w-bush","15":"tag-national-park-service","16":"tag-national-security","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-richard-j-leon","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-congress","22":"tag-united-states-government","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa","28":"tag-washington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}