The White House is urging a federal appeals court to allow construction to continue on President Donald Trump’s $400 million ballroom, arguing it will help provide protection both for the president’s family and the country as a whole.
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The ballroom is “a vital project for the safety and security of the White House and the President, his family, and his staff,” the administration said in a filing with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. “Halting construction would imperil the President and others who live and work in the White House.”
The filing cited a number of safety measures that are being installed or have already been placed in the area under where the ballroom is being built.
“As an example, the protective missile-resistant steel columns, beams, drone proof roofing materials, and bullet, ballistic, and blast proof glass, are largely made, being used, and/or on their way to the project,” the filing said. “Likewise, the bomb shelters, hospital and medical area, protective partitioning, and Top Secret Military installations, structures, and equipment, are built and/or ready to be built, installed, and placed.”
Halting the construction of the ballroom over the underground work site, the administration argued, would “would imperil the President and national security and indefinitely leave a large hole beside the Executive Residence.”
The preservation group that sued to block the project until it gets what it argues is necessary congressional approval told the appeals court in a filing that the administration’s claims are overblown.
The defendants’ “self-described (and self-inflicted) ‘open construction site’ has not prevented President Trump from continuing to live at the White House since he demolished the East Wing; from hosting guests, press conferences, and foreign dignitaries; or from convening meetings of Cabinet members and other high-ranking officials,” the National Trust for Historic Preservation said in a filing Wednesday.
Davis Ingle, a spokesperson for the White House, said in a statement to NBC News on Thursday that “President Trump clearly has the legal authority to modernize, renovate, and beautify the White House — just like all of his predecessors did.”
A representative for the trust declined comment.
The back and forth comes after U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, issued a preliminary injunction on March 31 to halt construction, finding that the trust was “likely to succeed on the merits because no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have” to build the 90,000 square foot ballroom on federal land.
The president, Leon wrote, is the “steward of the White House for future generations of First Families.”
“He is not, however, the owner!” the judge added.
Leon paused his order for 14 days to allow the White House time to appeal, and also made an exception: allowing for work to be done that is “strictly necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House and its grounds.”
Trump told reporters on the day of the ruling that that exception means the whole project should be allowed to proceed, because it’s all necessary.
The Justice Department did not make that argument in its appeal, but did say the underground work and the ballroom are both security necessities.
The “new East Wing’s entire design cohesively advances critical national-security objectives, including protecting the President, his family, staff, all elements of the White House itself, continuity of operations, and communications infrastructure from hostile attacks via drones, ballistic missiles, bullets, biohazards, through specially and specifically designed Military grade ventilation, and much more,” the DOJ said in a filing last week.
The trust said it doesn’t have an issue with the underground work and had never objected to it, and noted that the administration argued in court filings last year that the projects were separate.
After the judge’s March 31 ruling, however, “the ballroom and bunker suddenly (and conveniently) became inseparable,” the trust said in Wednesday’s court filing.
“Only when someone stopped their illegal ballroom did the previously acceptable status quo become a supposed ‘national security’ crisis overnight,” it added.
The administration is seeking an order pausing Leon’s ruling from late March while the case makes its way through the appeals process.
The ballroom has been a central passion project for Trump during his second term. He has been heavily involved in the planning and has repeatedly shown off models of the site to journalists and made repeated references to it when speaking about other topics, including the war with Iran.
When he first announced the project, the president said it wouldn’t “interfere” with the current building, but then abruptly had the White House’s East Wing demolished, saying it was not in good shape and it was more efficient to tear it down and start over.
Both he and his attorneys in the case have contended that despite the judge’s ruling, there’s no need for congressional approval for the project, in part because it’s being privately funded.
“The East Wing Project is the President’s to approve, plan, and coordinate under both the powers that Congress has granted to NPS (the National Park Service) and other entities and consistent with the separation of powers,” the administration’s filing said.
It also indicated that it would seek to take the case to the Supreme Court if the appeals court does not rule in its favor.