A federal appeals court has ordered the Trump administration to halt above-ground construction of a planned $400 million ballroom at the White House, ruling that the president does not have the unilateral authority to build the massive structure without congressional approval. The 2-1 decision by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld an earlier injunction and delivered a significant legal setback to one of Trump's most prominent domestic construction ambitions.
The ballroom, a 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-metre) structure — larger than a football field and designed to host up to 999 guests — is planned for the site where the White House's East Wing stood before Trump ordered its demolition late last year. The project represents the largest structural change to the White House in more than 70 years. Writing for the majority, the court was unambiguous: "Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help." Judges Patricia Millett, nominated by President Barack Obama, and Bradley Garcia, nominated by President Joe Biden, backed the ruling. Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump nominee, dissented.
The administration has argued that the project is fundamentally a national security matter, pointing to planned underground facilities including bomb shelters, military installations, and medical facilities to protect against threats ranging from drones to ballistic missiles. Trump framed the ruling as a threat to national security, writing on social media that the decision was "horrendous, politically motivated, and unlawful." However, the court — and the district judge below it, Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee — distinguished between the above-ground ballroom and the underground works, allowing construction of the latter to continue. Attorneys for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the nonprofit that brought the lawsuit in December 2025, countered simply that the absence of a ballroom does not constitute a national security emergency.
Funding for the project has also been contested. Trump has maintained that the ballroom is being paid for through private donations from corporations and wealthy individuals, making congressional authorisation unnecessary. Yet his administration previously requested $1 billion from Congress for the project, a request lawmakers refused in May. Democrats subsequently raised concerns that approximately $350 million in redirected funds from a tax cuts law may have been channelled toward the ballroom.
The ruling takes effect in two weeks, giving the administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court — which Trump said he intends to do. The court stressed that its decision does not permanently bar the ballroom from ever being built, only that it cannot proceed without lawmakers' sign-off. "This ruling does not even necessarily mean that the Defendants may not ultimately construct the ballroom," the court wrote. The case comes as a separate controversy surrounds Trump's proposal to build a 250-foot triumphal arch near the Lincoln Memorial, which a National Park Service assessment found could compromise the historical significance of dozens of nearby sites.