But in a majority ruling on Friday, the court panel blocked the ongoing work on the project, writing: “Each president is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House.
“Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help.
“Congress has not ceded unfettered authority to the Executive Branch to dramatically redesign, reshape, and reconstruct the White House – the People’s House – to fit a particular president’s desires.”
The order upheld a preliminary injunction won by the US National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued the administration in 2025 after the East Wing was torn down without authorisation from Congress.
The appeals court placed its ruling on hold for 14 days to allow the Trump administration to appeal to the US Supreme Court, which Trump said it would do so “immediately”.
It is the latest roadblock in Trump’s efforts to leave his mark on Washington DC.
As well as the ballroom, Trump is seeking to build a new, 250ft-tall arch in the city and added his name to the outside of the Kennedy Centre – which he was later ordered to remove.
His administration’s efforts to renovate the Reflecting Pool became a major source of embarrassment when just days after it was installed, the new lining began to fall apart.
Trump has previously said the “new, big, beautiful White House ballroom” would make the East Wing “more beautiful than ever”.
He has said he needed the room to “accommodate people for grand parties” and “state visits”.
But in recent months he and government lawyers have also touted its numerous military and security features.
Its construction is apparently being funded in private donations, with Trump previously saying it would require “not one dime of government money”.
But in May Senate Republicans sought US$1 billion ($1.7b) in public money to fund “security adjustments and upgrades” on the project, leading to criticisms from a number of Democrats.
Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal told NBC at the time: “This has been a bait and switch – promising it would be privately funded and now, apparently, taxpayers will be on the hook for it.”
Despite this, Trump on Friday repeated his claim that “there will be no expense to the American Taxpayer”.
He described the ballroom as a “gift from President Trump and great patriots of the United States of America”.
On Friday, the panel upheld an April 16 order from Richard Leon, a US district judge, for the administration to halt above-ground work on the ballroom.
Leon, who was nominated to the bench by George W Bush, allowed construction to continue below-ground work on a bunker and other “national security facilities” at the site.
Trump criticised Leon’s decision on social media, calling him a “Trump hating” judge who “has gone out of his way to undermine national security, and to make sure that this great gift to America gets delayed, or doesn’t get built”.
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