A federal judge on Tuesday ordered President Donald Trump to halt construction of his long-promoted $400 million White House ballroom, marking a significant legal setback for a project that has drawn both praise and intense scrutiny.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary injunction requested by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, ruling that the administration cannot move forward without authorization from Congress.
“I 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,” Leon wrote.
“The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!”
The decision effectively freezes construction on the massive project, which Trump has said is being funded entirely through private donations and his own money, with “not one dime” of taxpayer funding.
The ballroom—planned as a roughly 90,000-square-foot addition—has been one of Trump’s most visible efforts to reshape the White House. The president has argued the current building lacks adequate space for large-scale events and foreign dignitaries, saying past administrations have long wanted such an upgrade.
The project has become even more controversial in recent days after Trump revealed that the structure would sit atop a “massive” underground military complex.
“Now, the military is building a massive complex under the ballroom,” Trump said over the weekend, describing the ballroom as effectively a protective layer for the facility below.
That disclosure, coupled with ongoing legal challenges, intensified scrutiny of the project’s scope and purpose. Critics—including preservation groups—have argued the administration bypassed required approvals and raised concerns about both transparency and the long-term impact on the historic White House grounds.
The legal battle also unfolded alongside a critical New York Times report examining the design and construction decisions behind the ballroom, which was sharply criticized by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Trump himself had dismissed earlier legal challenges as “stupid,” including opposition tied to federal planning oversight.
Following Tuesday’s ruling, Trump responded in a post on Truth Social, defending the project and questioning the motives of those challenging it:
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sues me for a Ballroom that is under 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. I then get sued by them over the renovation of the dilapidated and structurally unsound former Kennedy Center, now, The Trump Kennedy Center (A show of Bipartisan Unity, a Republican and Democrat President!), where all I am doing is fixing, cleaning, running, and “sprucing up” a terribly maintained, for many years, Building, but a Building of potentially great importance. Yet, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Radical Left Group of Lunatics whose funding was stopped by Congress in 2005, is not suing the Federal Reserve for a Building which has been decimated and destroyed, inside and out, by an incompetent and possibly corrupt Fed Chairman. The once magnificent Building is BILLIONS over budget, may never be completed, and may never open. All of the beautiful walls inside have been ripped down, never to be built again, but the National “Trust” for Historic Preservation never did anything about it! Or, have they sued on Governor Gavin Newscum’s “RAILROAD TO NOWHERE” in California that is BILLIONS over Budget and, probably, will never open or be used. So, the White House Ballroom, and The Trump Kennedy Center, which are under budget, ahead of schedule, and will be among the most magnificent Buildings of their kind anywhere in the World, gets sued by a group that was cut off by Government years ago, but all of the many DISASTERS in our Country are left alone to die. Doesn’t make much sense, does it?
He asked why the National Trust for Historic Preservation would oppose a ballroom that is “under budget, ahead of schedule, being built at no cost to the Taxpayer, and will be the finest Building of its kinds anywhere in the World,” while not taking similar action against other major government projects.
Trump also argued that the lawsuit “doesn’t make much sense,” pointing to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s high-speed rail project—often criticized by Republicans—as an example of what he called a “RAILROAD TO NOWHERE” that has not faced comparable legal intervention.
The ruling now leaves the future of the ballroom uncertain. Construction cannot resume unless Congress steps in to authorize the project, setting up a potential political fight over both the expansion itself and the broader question of presidential authority over the White House complex.
