'Construction has to stop!': Federal judge halts White House ballroom construction
A federal judge in Washington on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking further construction of President Donald Trump's signature White House ballroom -- a blow delivered in a colorful ruling that asserted the Trump "is not...the owner!"
Judge Richard Leon wrote that Trump can't build the ballroom without authorization from Congress, and that "no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have."
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the privately funded nonprofit designated by Congress to protect historic sites, sued in an attempt to stop the construction of the White House ballroom, which began without congressional approval last fall. The organization asked the construction of the massive 90,000 square foot ballroom be stopped pending the completion of a federal review process standard for federal building projects.
In the ruling, Leon said Trump is "the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!" The ruling says that the people’s elected representatives must authorize construction on White House grounds, and the scheme by which it is to be funded.
"Unfortunately for Defendants, unless and until Congress blesses this project through statutory authorization, construction has to stop!" Leon wrote.
The judge suggested a straightforward solution to the problem: a simple ask of the House and Senate.
"The President may at any time go to Congress to obtain express authority to construct a ballroom and to do so with private funds. Indeed, Congress may even choose to appropriate funds for the ballroom, or at least decide that some other funding scheme is acceptable,” Leon wrote.
The White House has argued that the nature of the project on the White House grounds does not require congressional approval, an assertion the Trust challenged in its lawsuit.
“President Trump clearly has the legal authority to modernize, renovate, and beautify the White House -- just like all of his predecessors did. We will immediately appeal this egregious decision and are confident we will prevail," Davis Ingle, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement.
Trump initially said in July that the project would not interfere with the existing White House structure -- but the White House's East Wing was later demolished.
Leon is delaying enforcement of his injunction for 14 days to allow for a likely appeal from the administration, and is excluding from his order anything that would be "strictly necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House and its grounds, including the ballroom construction site, and provide for the personal safety of the President and his staff."
But Leon rejected the White House’s arguments, made as late as Monday night in a classified filing, that national security would be imperiled by a halt to the ballroom’s construction. He describes that position as "grasping for straws."
"While I take seriously the Government's concerns regarding the safety and security of the White House grounds and the President himself, the existence of a 'large hole' beside the White House is, of course, a problem of the President's own making!” Leon wrote.
Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, applauded Leon's decision.
"This is a win for the American people on a project that forever impacts one of the most beloved and iconic places in our nation," Quillen wrote in a statement.
Trump blasted the National Trust for Historic Preservation in a post on social media Tuesday after Leon's ruling, calling it a "Radical Left Group of Lunatics."
Trump also lamented that the National Trust had also sued him over the proposed renovation of the Kennedy Center.
“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,” Trump said in the post.
ABC News' Nicholas Kerr and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
