President Donald Trump doesn’t have the authority to fast-track his new White House ballroom without Congress’s authority, a divided panel of appellate court judges in Washington, D.C., said Friday.
In the latest blow to Trump’s efforts to build the 90,000-square-foot addition to the White House, two judges on the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled the president must halt construction until he seeks Congress’s approval.
“Each President is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House and its Executive Residence,” the judges wrote.
“We are aware of no instance in American history in which a President unilaterally and using privately collected funds demolished substantial portions of the White House that Congress authorized to be built and American taxpayers paid for. Until now.”
The court will pause the ruling from taking effect for two weeks to give the Trump administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court.
open image in galleryJudge Patricia Millet, an Obama appointee, and Judge Brad Garcia, a Biden appointee, ruled in favor of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the group suing the administration to stop construction of the ballroom.
In doing so, they agreed with a lower court ruling, issued in April, that found Trump overstepped his authority when he demolished the East Wing to make room for the new ballroom.
“This holding has nothing at all to do with whether the proposed ballroom is desirable, or not, as a matter of policy,” the judges wrote. “This ruling does not even necessarily mean that the Defendants may not ultimately construct the ballroom.”
“What it does mean is that the Defendants may not do so during the district court’s expeditious litigation without securing Congress’s authorization, as the Constitution and laws require,” the judges added.
Meanwhile, Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, said she would have sided with the administration.
The Independent has asked the White House for comment.
open image in galleryLast year, Trump announced he would build the new glamorous ballroom, without using American taxpayer dollars, to serve as an entertaining space for state dinners and events.
But much like Trump’s other D.C. beautification projects, the cost, scale and public understanding of the project have changed over time.
The cost of the ballroom has surged from its original $200 million estimate to $400 million – with some believing it could cost upwards of $600 million. While Trump has said private donations will pay for the ballroom itself, in June the administration transfered more than $300 million from the Secret Service budget to cover security upgrades to the White House.
The administration has continued building the ballroom as legal challenges play out, arguing the ballroom is essential for national security because they are building an underground bunker containing a military complex, a hospital and an emergency operations center.