Demolition work continued where the East Wing once stood at the White House on Dec. 8, 2025. President Donald Trump ordered the 123-year-old East Wing and Jacqueline Kennedy Garden leveled to make way for a new 90,000-square-foot ballroom. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday to intervene in a lower court decision that halts his $400 million White House ballroom construction unless he receives authorization from Congress.
The administration requested the justices grant an immediate stay to a 2-1 federal appeals court decision that sided with historic preservationists who argued Trump doesn’t have the authority to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom where the White House East Wing stood until Trump ordered its demolition
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued the decision on Aug. 7 but delayed the ruling for two weeks to allow the administration time to appeal.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, who previously defended Trump before the high court as his personal defense attorney, argued the project was needed to enhance security at the White House.
The “updated East Wing complex is absolutely required and should not be enjoined,” he said, citing assassination attempts on the president.
Sauer also wrote that Congress has “twice over” already authorized the current project, through a 1916 law governing the National Park Service and a 1978 statute, by empowering the Department of the Interior to embark on major construction projects and delegating powers to the president to use appropriated funds to alter the White House.
“Following this tradition, President Trump determined that many factors urgently required modernizing the old East Wing — most critically, that it no longer performed vital security functions,” according to the appeal.
“Compounding those problems were structural defects, such as a degraded foundation, crumbling roof, pervasive mold and mildew, water-related deterioration, obsolete electrical infrastructure, toxic asbestos, and lead paint.”
In a written statement to States Newsroom Friday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the group that initially sued to stop construction, described the administration’s application to the Supreme Court as “audacious.”
The “transparent efforts to evade the rule of law, frustrate judicial review, and limit the availability of meaningful relief in the courts must stop here,” the statement, attributed to the group as a whole, said.
‘Military complex’
The Trump administration has asserted publicly the project would serve as a security upgrade. Sauer again made that argument in his 45-page appeal.
The ballroom, which is expected to seat 1,000 people, will be incorporated into a “highly integrated military complex” descending several stories underground, he told the court, and would include security features such as drone-proof ceilings, bomb shelters, sniper nests, “military-grade venting,” and “state-of-the-art hospital and medical facilities.”
The trust noted that courts had already rejected the security arguments.
“Each court reviewing this case has ruled that construction of the Ballroom is unlawful,” the statement said. “Each court has seriously and carefully considered the administration’s asserted national security concerns. And each court has ruled that while underground bunker construction can continue, Ballroom construction must stop.”
According to Thursday’s appeal, the project is already 65% complete, with a concrete-and-steel “superstructure” reaching five stories underground and 70-feet high, occupying nearly 50,000 square feet.
The construction has accelerated over the past four months, with workers on a 250-person crew operating 20 hours a day, seven days a week, “to keep the Project ahead of schedule and under budget,” Sauer wrote, adding that $200 million has been spent or committed to date, and has been “shouldered by private donations.”
The National Trust for Historic Preservation accused the administration of taking advantage of the court delay to speed construction.
“The administration has not only refused to listen, but is now actively attempting to outrun the courts by accelerating construction of the Ballroom,” the group said.
“The administration’s audacious Supreme Court filing today announced it would be installing another 1 million pounds of rebar and pouring another 3,000 cubic yards of concrete in just the next week alone, before the Appeals Court’s stay of the injunction expires next Friday,” the group said.
Court battle
In mid-April, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked any above-ground construction on the ballroom, allowing underground construction on security facilities to continue.
A day later, April 17, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia stayed the lower court ruling and put the case on a fast track.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation hailed the split appeals court decision earlier this month as a “great day for our country and for the American people’s right to voice their opinions about the historic places they cherish, including the White House.”
“From the beginning, our position has been clear and consistent: the law states that only Congress can authorize the construction of a ballroom at the White House,” the trust’s president and CEO Brent Leggs said in a statement Aug. 7.
The East Wing was originally built in 1902 as a receiving area for visitors, according to the White House Historical Association. A 1942 renovation added a bomb shelter and a second story. From the late 1970s onward, beginning with first lady Roslynn Carter, the wing housed the office of first ladies and their staff.