USA21 August, 20262 min read
John Roberts Allows Trump’s $400M White House Ballroom Project To Continue While Court Reviews Appeal
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary order allowing construction to continue. The stay pauses lower-court halts while the administration appeals to the Supreme Court.
Roberts pauses halt
The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily allowed President Donald Trump’s $400m White House ballroom project to continue after Chief Justice John Roberts signed a temporary order on Friday while the court considers an emergency appeal.
“The helipad and ballroom are under construction Friday at the White House in Washington, D.C.”
Lower courts had ordered a halt to the project because they found it must have congressional approval, and the BBC said the stay would remain in place pending further action from the court.
The BBC reported that the appeals court ruled Trump was a "temporary tenant" of the White House and could not make the alterations without congressional approval, and it said the case was originally filed by a preservation group arguing the project would become irreversible unless stopped immediately.
The dispute is tied to the White House East Wing, which the sources say was demolished as part of the ballroom effort, and the Channel 3000 report said the helipad and ballroom were under construction Friday at the White House in Washington, D.C.
Security fight and pushback
The Trump administration argued the project is required for national security, and Channel 3000 quoted Justice Department lawyers saying the injunction would halt "the ongoing construction of the integrated military complex" at the East Wing. The Guardian reported that Democrats accused the supreme court of "rubber stamping Trump’s vanity-driven, gilded corruption," and it quoted Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer saying: "As costs skyrocket, the administration is wasting money on an endless and illegal war, corporate giveaways and Trump’s pet projects."
Trump welcomed the stay, and the BBC said he posted on social media that he is grateful for the Supreme Court’s decision and called the new complex "vital for National Security". The BBC also described the preservation group’s position, saying it told the BBC on Friday: "We are aware of the administrative stay" and that it was "not a final decision on the merits" while it awaited further action.
What’s at stake next
The BBC said the appeals court had given the administration two weeks to appeal earlier this month, and it described how the Supreme Court’s stay keeps the project moving while the high court mulls over whether to halt it entirely.
Channel 3000 reported that in an Aug. 14 filing to the Supreme Court, Justice Department lawyers said the overall East Wing project is 65% complete, and it said the district judge’s order blocked above-ground efforts while allowing below-ground construction and work deemed "strictly necessary" for safety and security.
The Guardian said the massive 90,000sq-ft (8,400 sq meters) ballroom project has already involved the demolition of the White House East Wing, and it described the administration’s claim that the underground military bunker would be a five-story complex including shelters and a hospital.
Al Jazeera reported that the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit in December to stop the ballroom’s construction, arguing Trump has no unilateral authority to undertake the work, and it quoted the preservation group’s court argument that the administration was trying to "outrun the courts" by accelerating construction despite injunctions to pause the work.