Legal Challenge to Trump’s White House Ballroom Project
On Friday, a legal action was initiated against President Donald Trump by preservationists concerning his White House ballroom project. The lawsuit, filed in a federal court, seeks to halt the project until it undergoes various independent reviews and gains congressional approval.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private organization, has requested the U.S. District Court to stop Trump’s project. This project, which has already led to the demolition of the East Wing, is required to pass through extensive design evaluations, environmental impact analyses, public consultations, and legislative discussions. The addition itself would be almost twice the size of the White House prior to the East Wing’s demolition.
The lawsuit asserts, “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. And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in.”
The Trust contends that by accelerating the project, Trump has breached the Administrative Procedures Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, and exceeded his constitutional powers by bypassing legislative consultation.
According to the Trust, no further construction should proceed until the necessary evaluations are completed, evaluations that should have been conducted before the East Wing’s demolition and the ballroom’s construction commenced.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not immediately reply to inquiries from the Associated Press regarding the lawsuit or if the president plans to consult Congress. Despite Trump’s claims of funding the project with private money, including his own, federal procedures might still apply to the government project.
Trump has circumvented standard federal building protocols and historical assessments with the East Wing’s removal and has enlisted an additional architectural firm for the project. Trump has often expressed that a White House ballroom is overdue, citing the inconvenience of hosting events in outdoor tents, especially during rain.
Plans for Trump’s new ballroom are expected to be submitted to a federal planning commission by the end of the year, approximately three months after the project began, according to Will Scharf, Trump’s appointee as chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission. Scharf indicated at a recent meeting that the plans would be filed in December, marking the start of the commission’s role and review process.
The Trust maintains that the review process should have commenced much earlier and that it involves the National Capital Planning Commission, the Commission of Fine Arts, and Congress. The Trust has contacted these entities and the National Park Service, urging a project halt and legal compliance.
“The National Trust received no response,” the lawsuit noted. It also highlights a federal statute stating that no structure shall be erected on federal grounds in Washington, D.C., without Congress’s explicit authorization, emphasizing the necessity of public participation in such significant preservation matters.
In addition to the president, the lawsuit lists several federal agencies and their leaders as defendants, including the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, and the General Services Administration.
