A federal judge has once again issued an order halting construction on President Donald Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom until it “expresses authority from Congress,” calling the administration’s attempt to ignore his previous ruling “unbelievable, if not disingenuous.”
US District Court Judge Richard J. Leon’s previous March 31 order to halt construction did not include “actions strictly necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House and its grounds.”
The Trump administration argued in an April 3 proposal that construction of the entire ballroom must proceed or it would leave the executive mansion “open and exposed” and create a “serious national-security harm” to the building, the president and his family and staff.
In his April 16 decision, Leon sought to set out his earlier ruling.
“Defendants now seek to turn this exception on its head and unreasonably assert that the entire ballroom project can proceed,” Lyon wrote. “Defendants argue that the entire ballroom construction project, tip to tail, falls within the safety-and-security exception and therefore can proceed continuously. That is neither a fair nor a correct reading of my order!”
Trump hit out at Lyons, calling him a “Trump hater” who has “gone out of his way to undermine national security and make sure this great gift to America is delayed or never built.”
Trump also listed the features he said would be part of the project: “bomb shelters, state-of-the-art hospital and medical facilities, protective partitions, top-secret military installations, structures and equipment, protective missile-resistant steel, columns, roofs, and beams, vanes and drooping, drones, protective missile-resistant steel. Bullet, ballistic and blast-proof glass.”
The fact that the project will include a “state-of-the-art hospital” was not previously disclosed. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the location of the hospital and whether it would be above or below ground.
Workers are seen at the White House Ballroom construction site on April 11, 2026 in Washington, DC.
The decision comes after the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed an amended lawsuit last month against Trump and several federal agencies seeking to halt construction on the 90,000-square-foot ballroom. The nonprofit group argued that Trump should have gotten permission from Congress before the East Wing was demolished.
Leone also clarified that the scope of the injunction applies only to “above-ground construction of planned ballrooms”.
It does not prevent “underground construction of national security facilities, work necessary to protect the President, and construction necessary to protect and secure the White House and construction sites,” he wrote.
Two days before the March 31 ruling, Trump said a key part of the ballroom he is building for the White House has a “huge military complex” underneath it that must remain secret. He accused him of exposing the secret of the case.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump says part of White House construction on hospital after order stalled
