Trump pitches White House ballroom as a ‘highly integrated military complex’ to Supreme Court

President Donald Trump sought U.S. Supreme Court approval to keep building his massive new White House ballroom after two lower courts said he was flouting the law by proceeding without congressional authorization.

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In a filing made public Friday, Trump asked the justices for an emergency order letting construction continue without restrictions while a legal fight continues. An appeals court ruling blocking most above-ground work will take effect Aug. 21 unless the Supreme Court intervenes.

The request thrusts the court into a highly symbolic clash over Trump’s efforts to unilaterally remake the aesthetics of the nation’s capital. If completed, the ballroom addition would be 90,000 square feet, larger than the White House mansion and West Wing combined, with a security bunker underneath. Trump demolished the East Wing to make way for the ornate structure.

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Trump told the Supreme Court he is building a “highly integrated military complex that incorporates a classical, but highly secured, ballroom and crucial national-security facilities.”

The filing came with new photos and renderings of the facility, including images of a “Drone Port” on top of the structure and a gold seal over the ballroom’s entrance. The administration said the project is 65 per cent complete.

Chief Justice John Roberts asked the group challenging the ballroom to file a response by next Tuesday, signalling the likelihood of quick action by the high court.

A federal district judge and appeals court both said above-ground work needed to stop. In a 2-1 ruling on Aug. 7, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that Congress, not the president, has control over federal property.

“Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for executive self-help,” wrote Judges Patricia Millett and Brad Garcia, both Democratic appointees. Republican-appointed Judge Neomi Rao dissented.

A key question is whether anyone has the legal right to sue to challenge the construction. The D.C. Circuit said the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States had standing to sue because of the “historic, architectural, and aesthetic interests” at stake, as well as the impact on a member of the group who frequently passes by the White House. The National Trust is a nonprofit organization chartered by Congress to preserve and promote the country’s architectural and cultural heritage.

“To recognize standing based on a casual observer’s preferences invites serial litigation and abuse,” Trump argued in a brief filed by Solicitor General D. John Sauer, the administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer. “She has no standing to be involved in this case.”

The National Trust said the filing showed the administration was “brazenly” speeding up construction in the aftermath of the D.C. Circuit ruling. A White House official said in a statement attached to the filing that crews would install another 1 million pounds of rebar and pour another 3,000 cubic yards of concrete over the next week.

“Each court reviewing this case has ruled that construction of the ballroom is unlawful,” the National Trust said in a statement. “The administration has not only refused to listen, but is now actively attempting to outrun the courts by accelerating construction of the ballroom.”

Trump has spent much of his second term in office trying to leave his physical imprint throughout Washington and northern Virginia. He is also pushing to construct a 250-foot arch and build a championship-level golf course near the Jefferson Memorial. After a board with numerous Trump appointees added his name to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, a court ordered that it be removed. In each case, the administration did not get explicit congressional approval or funding.

Hours after the appeals court ruled in the ballroom case, Trump vowed to turn the Supreme Court, characterizing the ballroom as a “desperately needed Military Center” in a Truth Social post. Construction has continued during the legal fight.

Trump has repeatedly said the ballroom would be funded by hundreds of millions of dollars in private money. But Democrats in June complained that the administration also appears to be diverting almost US$400 million that was allocated for the Secret Service last year in Trump’s tax-cut law.

In the new court filing, the administration said that the project will be funded with US$400 million in private donations and that “zero taxpayer dollars are needed or required” for the ballroom itself.

The donations have also raised conflict-of-interest concerns. At least three dozen major corporations and wealthy individuals, many of whom have business before the Trump administration, have contributed to the project, including Apple Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Amazon.com Inc. The list also includes defense contractors, cryptocurrency ventures and Wall Street figures such as Blackstone Inc. co-founder Stephen Schwarzman.

The case is National Park Service v. National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, 26a203.

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