A federal judge has limited President Trump’s ballroom construction to “below ground.”
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon paused the ballroom’s construction earlier this month, arguing that “no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have.”
“Defendants argue that the entire ballroom construction project, from tip to tail, falls within the safety-and-security exception and therefore may proceed unabated,” Leon wrote in the new order. “That is neither a reasonable nor a correct reading of my Order!”
“For the reasons that follow, I will further clarify and amend my Order to stop only above-ground construction of the planned ballroom,” the order adds. “My Amended Order does not, however, stop below-ground construction of national security facilities, work necessary to provide for presidential security, and construction necessary to protect and secure the White House and the construction site itself.”
Above-ground construction is only permitted as necessary to “cover, secure, and protect” particular facilities. “The Amended Order also permits construction necessary to protect the project site and to protect the structural integrity of the White House complex, including waterproofing, water management, and resolving construction risks such as “uncovered rebar and exposed cables around the site,” the order says.
President Trump recently announced that the ballroom would have a complex underground. “Now the military is building a big complex under the ballroom, which has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed, but the military’s building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that’s under construction and we’re doing very well,” he said, describing the ballroom as a “shed.” He added, “We have all bullet-proof glass, we have drone-proof roofs, ceilings.”
