Federal judge reveals how he may order Trump's ballroom to be 'taken down': report

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a model of an arch monument during a ballroom dinner in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 15, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

CNN reports U.S. District Judge Richard Leon (a George W. Bush appointee) will not halt work on President Donald Trump’s $300 million ballroom, but he said he would hear arguments early next year about whether to issue a longer-term preliminary injunction against the project.

“The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued last week over the sprawling, privately funded project, claiming the White House has been unlawfully carrying out the construction because Trump hasn’t gotten approval from Congress or submitted his plans to the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts for review, which would give the public a chance to weigh in,” CNN reports.

“It’s not about the need for a ballroom, it’s about the need to follow the law,” argued Ted Heuer, an attorney for the preservation group. He added that had the group seen the assessments that were revealed in court papers Monday sooner, “we would have sued” before demolition of the East Wing began.

The group asked Leon to issue an emergency court order that would pause any further work on the ballroom until Congress authorizes it, the commissions review it and relevant environmental assessments are completed. But Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said the nation’s top historic preservation group had failed to show how it was being irreparably harmed by the construction in a way that required immediate court intervention.

Leon added, however, that the Trump administration must follow through on a pledge to submit the project to the National Capital Planning Commission by the end of this year.

“The court will hold them to that,” Leon said during a packed federal court hearing in Washington. “They’ve got until the end of this month.”

CNN reports the judge also warned that underground work set to be completed in coming months “must not dictate the ballroom’s eventual size or shape while the early stages of the legal challenge unfold. If it does, he said, it would have to be taken down.”

Trump argues the ballroom project is not subject to any oversight from ither Congress or independent agencies and he should be able to continue with it without any serious scrutiny.

Read the full CNN report at this link.

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