American Appeals Court Allows Construction of White House Ballroom to Proceed
A recent decision by a U.S. appeals court has temporarily lifted a lower court’s order that had paused construction of the White House ballroom, permitting the project to move forward for the time being.
Earlier, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon had issued a preliminary injunction preventing above-ground construction of the ballroom while allowing work on “below-ground” national security facilities to continue.
Leon emphasized that the project could not proceed without approval from Congress.
However, as reported by Aldgra Fredly for The Epoch Times, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has now blocked Leon’s injunction and scheduled a hearing for June 5 to determine the fate of the project.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which initiated the lawsuit last year, did not respond to requests for comments from The Epoch Times.
The construction of the 90,000 square feet ballroom was announced by the White House in July 2025, with work commencing in September of the same year. The ballroom is expected to be completed before the end of President Donald Trump’s term in early 2029.
The National Capital Planning Commission approved the ballroom project on April 2, but the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit in December 2025, arguing that the construction was illegal and requesting a halt to the project.
Leon ruled in favor of the National Trust for Historic Preservation on March 31, ordering a halt to the ballroom construction until Congress provided authorization.
Trump criticized the judge’s decision in a post on Truth Social, denouncing it as a “mockery” of the U.S. court system and emphasizing the importance of the ballroom to national security.
The project, estimated to cost $400 million, is set to be funded entirely by private donors, including major companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft.