By Aldgra Fredly
A U.S. appeals court on April 17 put on hold a lower court order that had halted construction of the White House ballroom, allowing the project to proceed for now.
Previously, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon issued a preliminary injunction blocking above-ground construction of the ballroom but allowed “below-ground” construction of national security facilities to continue. Leon had said the project cannot continue without authorization from Congress.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on April 17 blocked Leon’s injunction and scheduled a June 5 hearing to decide on whether the project should be halted.
The Epoch Times reached out to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which filed the lawsuit last year, but did not receive a response by publication time.
The White House first announced the project in July 2025, saying it would span 90,000 square feet. The construction phase began in September 2025, and the ballroom is expected to be completed before President Donald Trump’s presidency ends in early 2029, according to the White House. The National Capital Planning Commission approved the ballroom project on April 2.
In December 2025, the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit alleging that construction of the White House ballroom is unlawful and requested that the court halt the project.
Leon ruled in favor of the National Trust for Historic Preservation on March 31, ordering that “the ballroom construction project must stop until Congress authorizes its completion.”
The judge later clarified in an April 16 ruling that below-ground construction, including “the construction of any ‘top-secret excavations, bunkers, bomb-shelters, protective partitioning, military installations, and hospital and medical facilities,’ as well as such above-ground construction strictly necessary to cover, secure, and protect such facilities” may proceed.
Trump criticized the judge in a Truth Social post on April 17, calling his ruling “a mockery to the U.S. court system.”
“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,” he wrote. “The Ballroom is deeply important to our National Security, and no Judge can be allowed to stop this Historic and Militarily Imperative Project.”
The project is expected to cost about $400 million, all of which is expected to be funded by private donors.
According to a list provided by the White House to The Epoch Times, donors contributing funds to the new ballroom include Amazon, Apple, Google, Caterpillar Inc., HP Inc., Lockheed Martin, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Palantir Technologies, and the Union Pacific Railroad.
Jackson Richman and Reuters contributed to this report.
