- U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said on Tuesday he was unlikely to halt President Donald Trump's $300 million White House ballroom project.
- Leon says the National Trust for Historic Preservation failed to show irreparable harm from the construction.
- The Justice Department claims the project is lawful; the next hearing is scheduled for January.
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Washington said on Tuesday that he was not inclined to order the Trump administration to immediately halt work on a $300 million White House ballroom on the site of the demolished East Wing while hearing a lawsuit alleging the project abuses presidential power.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said at a hearing that he was unlikely to issue a temporary restraining order sought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in its lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump and federal agencies of starting the 90,000-square-foot project without legally required reviews or approvals.
Leon said the preservation group had not shown that letting the project proceed for now would cause "irreparable harm," but he warned the government to limit construction to below-ground work not tied to a specific future design.
The judge said he would issue a formal order soon and would hold another hearing in January.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X after the hearing that the project was "totally lawful" and the Justice Department would continue to defend it. The National Trust did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Republican president has made sweeping changes to the White House since returning to office in January. Trump installed gold decorations throughout the Oval Office and paved over the lawn of the Rose Garden to create a patio similar to the setting at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The massive ballroom would dwarf those alterations. Images of heavy machinery tearing into the White House's 120-year-old East Wing to make way for the project ignited condemnation, as critics accused Trump of plowing ahead without proper review.
"No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else," the National Trust's lawsuit said.
The group in its request for a temporary restraining order said the project has already caused "irreversible damage" to the White House and its grounds.
The administration in a filing on Monday said the project was lawful and followed in a long line of presidential renovations, including Franklin D. Roosevelt's construction of the East Wing itself. The filing said the ballroom was needed for state functions, its design was still evolving and above-ground construction was not planned until April, making an emergency order unnecessary.
"The president possesses statutory authority to modify the structure of his residence, and that authority is supported by background principles of executive power," the filing said.
Justice Department lawyer Adam Gustafson told Leon on Tuesday that there was nothing final about the ballroom plans, including the size of the building. He said the government intended to submit preliminary plans by the end of the month.
The lawsuit said Trump failed to gather public input and ignored statutes requiring consultation with the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts before tearing down the East Wing and starting work on the ballroom.
The National Trust said it sued the administration to force it to comply at a minimum "with the procedural requirements that inform and protect the public's opportunity to comment on the Ballroom Project."
