Trump asks Supreme Court to revive White House ballroom construction

Washington,UPDATED: Aug 15, 2026 03:58 IST

The Trump administration on Friday asked the US Supreme Court to let it continue work on the White House ballroom project while it challenges a lower court order stopping construction. The project, valued at about USD 400 million, has been halted by an appeals court panel that said Congress had not approved it.

Chief Justice John Roberts set Tuesday as the deadline for a response from the plaintiffs challenging the project. In its petition, the administration said stopping work would disrupt an ongoing construction effort at the White House and argued that the ballroom space is needed for security.

Solicitor General D John Sauer asked the Supreme Court to pause last week's ruling by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The lower court had suspended its own decision for two weeks to give the administration time to appeal, and Sauer asked the top court to act before the ruling takes effect on August 21.

The divided appeals court panel ruled that Trump must stop construction because Congress has not approved the project. The majority said Trump does not have the unilateral authority to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the site where the White House's East Wing stood before he ordered its demolition last autumn.

In its filing, the administration said: "This case involves an extraordinary and unlawful injunction that will halt the ongoing construction of the integrated military complex, including a totally secure ballroom space, at the East Wing of the White House, which is vitally required by national security." The filing also said the current state of the project, which it described as an open construction site, makes the White House harder to protect.

Friday's filing also included the administration's first confirmation that a threatened missile attack on Air Force One led the Secret Service to secretly fly Trump out of Turkey last month on an alternative military aircraft. Arguing for the need for a secure ballroom space, the filing cited "the threat of a missile attack against Air Force One on July 8" in a list of recent assassination attempts against Trump.

The administration said the project is "on time and under budget" and that about USD 400 million in private donations means no taxpayer money needs to be spent. However, Democrats in Congress have said funds from Trump's "big, beautiful" tax cuts bill appear to be paying for ballroom work. The administration has also asked Congress for additional funding, but lawmakers have not approved it.

In April, a district court judge ordered a stop to above-ground construction of the planned ballroom, but said the White House could continue underground work, including bunkers, military installations and medical facilities. Last week's 2-1 decision by the DC Circuit panel upheld that pause, siding with historic preservationists who sued to stop the project.

"Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help," the two judges in the majority, both appointed by Democratic presidents, wrote. Judge Neomi Rao, who was appointed by Trump, disagreed and said the preservationist group had no legal right to sue. "The district court elevated the aesthetic displeasure of a single passerby over the government's security interests in the ballroom," she wrote.

The administration has argued that the president, not Congress or the courts, has full authority to renovate the White House. It also said the Trust for Historic Preservation does not have the legal standing to challenge the project. Sauer said the ballroom project "should be a matter for the President and the political process, not construction-by-injunction".

Responding to the petition, the trust accused the White House of trying to "outrun the courts" by speeding up the work. It pointed to plans to install 1 million pounds of rebar and pour another 3,000 cubic yards of concrete in the next week alone. In a statement, the plaintiffs said: "The Administration's transparent efforts to evade the rule of law, frustrate judicial review, and limit the availability of meaningful relief in the courts must stop here."

At an appeals court hearing in early June, administration lawyer Yaakov Roth defended a broad view of presidential control over major public landmarks. In response to a hypothetical question, he said the government could bulldoze the Statue of Liberty and the White House, and that descendants of immigrants who came through Ellis Island and of enslaved people who built the White House would not have standing to sue.

The DC Circuit panel upheld an earlier ruling by US District Judge Richard Leon, who was nominated by former Republican President George W Bush. Leon said a pause would not jeopardise national security and exempted any construction work needed for the safety and security of the White House. The ballroom has been under construction for 10 months, and the administration said the work is about 65 per cent complete. Sauer told the Supreme Court: "Given those developments, the injunction promises chaos in service of nothing." In sum, the administration is seeking urgent relief from the Supreme Court to resume above-ground work on the ballroom, while opponents maintain that Congress, not the president alone, must decide whether such a structure should be built at the White House.

With PTI Inputs

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