WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump does not have to follow a lower court order to stop aboveground construction on his $400 million East Wing ballroom, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday in a 5-4 decision, all but guaranteeing work on the new complex will continue to accelerate.
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In an opinion from the conservative super-majority, the justices wrote that historic preservationists who sued to stop the project likely do not have standing and that the administration would be irreparably harmed by halting the construction.
National security officials, including several Cabinet members, the majority justices wrote, issued statements in the case “attesting to national security and other harms that would likely arise from enjoining a ‘single, coherent’ project that cannot be readily cleaved into distinct below- and above-ground pieces.”
“The Secretary of the Army, for example, represents that ‘[t]he height and mass’ of the planned above-ground ballroom are ‘crucial’ to shield the planned underground military installation ‘from kinetic impacts,’ and that, without such height and mass, ‘engineers would need to dig impractically deep,’” according to the unsigned opinion.
Congressional approval not needed for White House ballroom, Trump tells high court
The justices wrote the stay is in effect pending a “timely” petition from the Trump administration to ask the high court to take the case this upcoming term, also known as granting a writ of certiorari. Monday’s opinion came from what’s known as the emergency docket, which provides expedited decisions without full oral arguments.
“Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court,” the justices wrote.
Trump triumphant
Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social that he’s “pleased to report that the United States Supreme Court has just ruled in favor of the Ballroom/Military Complex being built without any further contingency, doubt, or threat. We are living in the Golden Age of America, and this Building will be one of the Greatest ever constructed in Washington, D.C.”
Trump added he expects the “magnificent” project to be completed by the summer of 2028 and that it is “totally funded by Great Patriots and Corporations and, therefore, is a Gift — At no cost to the American Taxpayer.”
The administration has maintained in court filings that the East Wing project is paid for by private donations.
Trump continued: “The Project, despite the baseless lawsuit brought by the so-called National Trust for Historic Preservation of the United States, which is not in any way affiliated with the United States Government, is under budget and ahead of schedule.”
Brent Leggs, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said in a statement the organization is “deeply disappointed” and disagrees with the ruling.
“It is noteworthy that the majority did not weigh in on whether the ballroom project was in fact legal.
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We are pleased with Chief Justice Robert’s strong dissent, which reiterated what we have maintained from the start of our case—that construction of the White House ballroom is unlawful,” said Leggs, who leads the private nonprofit that was chartered by Congress in 1949 to encourage the protection of historic sites.
“In addition, this is not the final decision on the merits of our case and does not resolve our fundamental argument—that each President is a temporary steward of the People’s House and does not have the unilateral authority to demolish and redesign it without the approval of Congress.”
Leggs said the Trust expects the administration to file a writ of certiorari, and they urge the justices to “expeditiously” consider it.
Roberts disagrees
In a dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts and liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote the construction is “likely unlawful” because Congress did not approve the changes to the White House grounds, which sit on federal park land.
“Today’s decision is no victory for the separation of powers,” Roberts wrote in the dissenting opinion.
The administration filed to the court’s emergency docket Aug. 13 asking the justices to block the lower court’s order, after a panel of federal appeals judges upheld it in a split decision a week prior.
Roberts granted a weeklong temporary stay on the lower court’s order while the justices took more time to consider the arguments.
The Trump administration maintained the planned 90,000-square-foot facility slated for where the White House East Wing used to stand will reach deep underground and will seat approximately 1,000 guests in an aboveground ballroom that is vital to national security. Trump demolished the East Wing in October 2025.
Officials told the Supreme Court justices in their stay application that as of mid-August, the project was already 65% complete, with a concrete-and-steel “superstructure” reaching five stories underground and 70 feet high, occupying nearly 50,000 square feet.
Over the past four months, workers on a 250-person crew had been operating 20 hours a day, seven days a week, “to keep the Project ahead of schedule and under budget,” U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote, adding that $200 million has been spent or committed to date, and has been “shouldered by private donations.”
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