Trump vows Supreme Court appeal after 2-1 ruling on ballroom project
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in a 2-1 decision that President Trump cannot continue renovating the White House East Wing without congressional approval, and Trump has vowed to take the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
According to a column by Francine Prose published Aug. 11 by The Guardian, Judges Patricia Millet and Bradley Garcia held that “each president is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House and its Executive Residence.” The suit was brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which argued that a temporary tenant cannot substantially alter the building without permission.
The dispute centers on the East Wing ballroom project, which Prose’s column says will occupy about 90,000 square feet. The ballroom itself would take up 22,000 square feet, with the remaining 68,000 housing, in a post by Trump quoted in the column, “one big, expensive, and very complex unit, which is vital for National Security and Military Operations!” The column describes a six-story underground bunker beneath the ballroom designed to protect leaders in the event of an attack, and states that Trump has most recently discussed using the new building’s roof as a launching pad for killer drones and other lethal weapons.
Cost estimates have varied widely, according to the column, with $400 million the most recent figure mentioned. Prose writes that Trump has promised the American taxpayer will not be stuck with all or part of the bill, though some of the money has already been diverted from publicly funded agencies such as the Secret Service.
The case was initially brought by Alison Hoagland, an architectural historian and a board member of the National Trust, who described the ballroom as an “aesthetic, cultural and historical” affrontholo. The column also reports that the historic White House rose garden has been remade to resemble an outdoor food court at a mall, and that photographs show a large hole in the east facade where demolition crews have been at work.
Prose, a former president of PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, argues in the column that the legal requirement to seek congressional approval has been ignored by a president who, she writes, has levied tariffs, attacked Venezuela, gutted government institutions and started a war with Iran “without bothering to consult the elected senators and representatives.” She says much of what Trump does seems pointless and a response to passing whim, but that he operates with “the instincts of an autocrat.”
The column describes the ballroom fight as part of a broader subversion of democratic norms, comparing the project to the rebuilt reflecting pool and a proposed triumphal arch. Prose writes that the reaction to the ballroom is partly about wanting grandchildren and great-grandchildren to be able to visit the nation’s capital “without having to think about Donald Trump and about how much he did to deface it.”