Appeals Court Rules Trump’s Ballroom Project Illegal In Major Victory For Democracy

A federal district court has halted plans to build a ballroom for Trump, citing the lack of presidential authority to alter the White House. Congressional approval is necessary for such changes because the White House, located in a national park, is owned by the American people, not any individual president.

As the White House and its surrounding grounds are national property, any modifications require congressional consent.

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The administration sought to overturn the injunction, but the federal DC Court of Appeals dismissed Trump’s appeal.

Since the initial injunction, ballroom construction has been at a standstill, prompting Trump to push for the project’s approval to be included in essential Senate legislation.

The appeals court highlighted that the ballroom initiative raises issues of separation of powers.

The court noted:

The Defendants also emphasize that the ballroom project’s nearly half-a-billion-dollar price tag is being privately funded by “American patriots.” Defs.’ Opening Br. 3. The United States is blessed to be filled with many patriots. But in this case, the Executive Branch’s self-help trenches not only on Congress’s control over federal property and historic sites, but also on Congress’s power of the purse.

The amount of private donations is unprecedented. See Press Release, Nat’l Park Serv., National Park Foundation Receives Historic $100 Million Grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. (Aug. 26, 2024) (celebrating a $100 million grant as “the largest ever received by [National Park Foundation] and the largest grant benefitting national parks”). By way of comparison, the $400 million projected cost of the ballroom project amounts to approximately 8% of the Park Service’s budget for Fiscal Year 2026, see NAT’L PARK SERV., BUDGET JUSTIFICATIONS AND PERFORMANCE INFORMATION FISCAL YEAR 2027, at 4 (2026), and exceeds 1,500 times the level requiring special scrutiny by the Department of Interior for conflicts of interest, see DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 374 DM 6.10.E(2)(b).

The use of private donations attempted to circumvent constitutional constraints on multiple fronts.