How Long the White House Ballroom Construction Delay Will Last Is Uncertain
This week, judge rules, again, to halt construction except in underground areas needed for security.
A federal judge this week—again—ordered construction on the White House East Wing, which includes a massive ballroom, to stop despite arguments from the Trump administration that leaving the construction site “open” and “exposed” creates national security concerns for the residence, president and his family.
In Thursday’s order, U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon clarified the March 31 preliminary injunction that initially directed a halt to construction of the ballroom project. He said he excluded from the scope of the injunction “actions strictly necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House and its grounds, including the ballroom construction site,” and for the personal safety of the president and his staff. The judge’s action, though, affirms his initial ruling that the president should seek approval from Congress to build the White House Ballroom.
In a filing earlier this month, the Trump administration argued that continued construction of the underground construction could not be separated from the construction of the above-ground ballroom for security reasons, noting that the Secret Service’s ability to protect the president would be hampered and that part of the East Room in the Executive Residence is vulnerable and would require “some structure to be built to that level.”
The judge called the administration’s reading of the original court order unreasonable and incorrect.
“Defendants argue that the entire ballroom construction project, from tip to tail, falls within the safety-and-security exception and therefore may proceed unabated,” Leon said. “It is, to say the least, incredible, if not disingenuous, that Defendants now argue that my Order does not stop ballroom construction because of the safety-and-security exception!”
The judge noted that the exception for underground national security facilities does not include the proposed ballroom because the Trump administration, themselves, distinguished between below-ground and above-ground construction, stating that “the below-surface work is driven by national security concerns independent of the above-grade construction.”
In the administration’s filing, more was revealed about what would be built in the underground bunker. Included were bomb shelters, a hospital and medical facilities, protective missile resistant steel columns, drone-proof ceilings and bullet, ballistic and blast proof glass.
The judge clarified and amended the preliminary injunction specifying that below-ground construction may proceed, 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.
The judge also permitted construction necessary to protect the project site and to protect the structural integrity of the White House complex, including waterproofing, water management, and resolving construction risks such as “uncovered rebar and exposed cables around the site.”
The injunction however, “does not permit above-ground construction of the proposed ballroom,” the judge said, explaining that national security is “not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity, and belated assertions that the above-ground ballroom is “inseparable” from an array of security features … are not an occasion for this Court to reweigh the equities or reconsider the preliminary injunction!”
Leon went on to say that he had “no desire or intention to be dragooned into the role of construction manager.”
President Trump’s privately-funded $400 million “East Wing Modernization Project” includes the 22,000-square-foot ballroom that will seat 1,000 people, a new Office of the First Lady suite, commercial kitchen, theater, two-story East Colonnade and outdoor garden area. The size of the ballroom spans nearly 300 feet long—the size of a football field—and has a ceiling height of about 40 feet.
The project has received overwhelming negative criticisms from the public saying the structure is too big. The East Wing of White House was demolished in October.
Earlier this month the National Capital Planning Commission approved the president’s design, a review that was considered the last hurdle to clear before above-ground work on the addition could begin. Leon’s decision ruled in favor of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit organization chartered by Congress that amended their lawsuit filed in December suing the president and other agencies of the government. The National Trust asserted in their lawsuit that ongoing construction of the White House ballroom is unlawful and asked the court to halt construction until the government complies with the law by going through the legally mandated review processes, including approval from Congress.
The president lashed out at Judge Leon (who was appointed by former President George W. Bush) in a social media post after his ruling Thursday calling him 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 …” In that same social media post, Mr. Trump detailed the security features being built in the underground bunker.
Earlier this month, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Leon’s ruling, giving the Trump administration until Friday to pursue relief from the Supreme Court.
The Weekly Wrap
The Weekly Wrap is a collection of headlines from the past week. Some publications have paywalls.
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