Appeals Court Blocks Trump’s White House Ballroom Renovation

A federal appeals court panel has ruled against President Donald Trump’s attempt to unilaterally demolish portions of the White House to build a massive ballroom, saying the unprecedented project requires congressional approval.

“Executive actions that take control of that property out of the hands of the people’s representatives while irreparably harming the historical and visual architecture of perhaps the most prominent public building in the United States seriously intrude on the public interest,” Judges Patricia Millett, an Obama appointee, and Bradley Garcia, a Biden appointee, wrote in a joint majority opinion issued Friday.

The appeals court put its ruling on hold for two weeks to allow Trump to seek relief from the Supreme Court. If the high court doesn’t act by then, above-ground construction at the site would have to halt.

Trump has claimed that security concerns necessitated tearing down the East Wing and replacing it with a ballroom and other features, such as a rooftop launching pad for drones. But the appeals panel’s majority rejected the notion that raising security issues meant the courts couldn’t enforce federal statutes governing funding for such projects.

“The bold assertion that the Executive can act with utter lawlessness, destroying treasured national landmarks and harming the interests of individuals, and that no court can stop it flouts our constitutional order,” Millett and Garcia wrote. “While this court accords great weight and deference to invocations of national security and the safety of the President, such arguments are not an automatic get-out-of-law-free card.”

The ruling is the latest blow to Trump’s effort to remake Washington, D.C., in his image. A federal judge blocked his bid to add his own name to the Kennedy Center, and his effort to revitalize the Reflecting Pool at the base of the Lincoln Memorial has been marred by construction failures and the failed prosecutions of alleged vandals that Trump had blamed for the defects.

Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, dissented, saying the security needs and aesthetic prerogatives of the White House vastly outweigh the concerns raised by the plaintiff in the lawsuit — the National Trust for Historic Preservation — and that the court where the suit was filed had no jurisdiction over the dispute to begin with.

Rao said U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, the George W. Bush appointee who initially ruled against the administration, had abused his authority by seeking to block the ballroom’s construction.

“In deciding the ballroom construction ‘has to stop!’ the district court transgressed the equitable authority of the federal courts,” Rao wrote, needling her lower-court colleague’s penchant for infusing his opinions with exclamation points.

“The district court seized supervision of construction at the White House, and my colleagues affirm this judicial overreach,” Rao concluded. “Because the injunction is beyond the proper province of the federal courts, construction should be allowed to continue.”

Construction crews abruptly demolished the White House’s East Wing last October, before the White House sought approvals from boards and commissions that oversee building projects on federal land in Washington. White House spokespeople noted that Trump had announced the project in July 2025 and posted sketches of the plan online, but critics said that announcement did not indicate the East Wing would be demolished in its entirety.

Trump has said the ballroom is needed because large events such as State dinners are difficult to accommodate at the White House and temporary tenting does significant damage to the lawns and grounds. He has also said the new ballroom will be more secure, although its planned capacity is too small to accommodate many of the major events presidents typically speak at in Washington.