President Trump, who has never lost his roots as a builder of landmark structures, can for now continue construction of the White House ballroom, the Supreme Court said Friday.
Chief Justice John Roberts in a single-sentence order stayed a lower-court ruling halting the project “pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.”
Mr. Trump announced the project July 31, 2025, and demolition of the East Wing began in October. The ballroom is estimated to cost $400 million, which the administration says will be financed through private donations. Last week, Solicitor General John Sauer told the Supreme Court the project is 65 percent complete.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a congressionally chartered nonprofit, sued in December after the East Wing structure was demolished, arguing only Congress has the power to approve such a project. Although its request for emergency relief to halt construction was initially rejected, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon granted a preliminary injunction March 31.
That injunction — affirmed August 7 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, with a two-week stay to allow for appeals — permitted below-ground construction work but halted anything related to the size and scale of the above-ground ballroom.
Mr. Trump and his attorneys contend the facility will not only house a much-needed public-functions space — state dinners are often held outside in tents — but provide various security features needed in a time of increased attacks on U.S. leaders and evolving technology such as drones.
Law professor, attorney, and broadcaster Hugh Hewitt, writing on social media before Mr. Roberts issued the stay, said the project must continue: “[T]he completion of the East Wing is an urgent matter of national security involving the protection of this and future presidents, their families and staffs and the necessary command-and-control centers and medical facilities at the White House, as well as the defenses at the White House of the White House and its adjacent grounds.”
Mr. Hewitt earlier referred to “TDS” (“Trump Derangement Syndrome”) and called the litigation a “circus” the Supreme Court should quickly end. “Imagine the consequences of a state sponsor of successfully terror targeting the White House if necessary defenses that would have deflected the attack are not in place,” he wrote.
The White House has not yet commented on Mr. Roberts’ order, though Mr. Trump posted an article about the news to his Truth Social account.
