U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing at the White House, on the one-year mark into his second term in office, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 20, 2026. REUTERS Nathan Howard
President Donald Trump is angry at the judges who ruled against his ability to build a massive ballroom over the White House East Wing he destroyed, and unleashed his rant on Truth Social.
“... [A] Trump Hating, Washington, D.C. District Court Judge, a man who has gone out of his way to undermine National Security, and to make sure that this Great Gift to America gets delayed, or doesn’t get built, is attempting to prevent future Presidents and World Leaders from having a safe and secure large scale Meeting Place, or Ballroom, one with Bomb Shelters, a State of the Art Hospital and Medical Facilities, Protective Partitioning, Top Secret Military Installations, Structures, and Equipment, Protective Missile Resistant Steel, Columns, Roofs, and Beams, Drone Proof Ceilings and Roofs, Military Grade Venting, and Bullet, Ballistic, and Blast Proof Glass —which all means that no future President, living in the White House without this Ballroom, can ever be Safe and Secure at Events, Future Inaugurations, or Global Summits,” Trump said.
Judge Richard Leon, who despite being appointed by a fellow Republican (President George W. Bush), set new limits on Trump’s planned White House ballroom, saying construction could proceed only on an underground portion of the project deemed necessary by the military, and not on the 90,000-square-foot above-ground addition that Trump wants to serve as an entertainment structure.
Leon argued that “the fact that the ballroom is planned to include security features such as bulletproof windows and a drone-proof roof … may well be beneficial” but the administration has so far failed to provide “any national security justification for why these features must be installed immediately.” Even if the president’s dubious national security claims are true, “national security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity," he said.
Leon concluding that Trump is “not the owner” of the White House but merely its caretaker, and also ordered that the president and his supporters not take "any action in furtherance of the physical development of the proposed ballroom at the former site of the East Wing of the White House, including but not limited to any further demolition, site preparation work, landscape alteration, excavation, foundation work, or other construction or related work[.]"
But Trump is not taking this well, arguing that “This Magnificent Space will allow them to carry out their vital duties as the Leader of our Nation. Furthermore, the Ballroom, which is being constructed on budget and ahead of schedule, is needed now. Almost all material necessary for its construction is being built and/or on its way to the site, ready for installation and erection. Much of it has already been paid for, costing Hundreds of Millions of Dollars. If somebody, especially one with no standing, had a complaint — Why wasn’t it filed many months earlier, long before Construction was started? The Public Record was open for all to see. Everybody knew that it was planned, and going to be built. This highly political Judge, and his illegal overreach, is out of control, and costing our Nation greatly. This is a mockery to our Court System! The Ballroom is deeply important to our National Security, and no Judge can be allowed to stop this Historic and Militarily Imperative Project. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The American public by and large overwhelmingly opposes the ballroom. The 9,000 pages of public comments issued after Trump announced its construction were almost entirely negative. The comments included statements that the ballroom is a "complete DISASTER,” insisting that there be "NO GAUDY FAKE GOLD STUFF ALL OVER THE PLACE,” saying that “no one wants to be in an adjunct building in a large crowd with lengthened security protocols,” calling it an “eyesore” and an “abomination” and “appalling.” A Republican congressman, Rep. Michael Turner of Ohio, spoke out in protest that “the stark images of the East Wing demolished in mere days were deeply disturbing to Americans who cherish preservation of our nation's history."
Former Trump supporter Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois was downright vulgar, saying that "this jack—— in the f—— White House is destroying a permanent structure that can't come back. He can't do this on his own! There's a rigorous, rigorous process to mess with the restructuring, structural changes of the White House, and he just blows right through all of that!"
