Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts Allows Trump White House Ballroom Construction to Continue Temporarily

Chief Justice John Roberts on August 21 temporarily allowed the Trump administration to continue construction of its $400 million White House ballroom project, pausing a lower court order that had been set to halt above-ground work on the site. The order is interim while the full Supreme Court considers whether to issue a longer-term stay. The project involves a sprawling ballroom built at the former site of the White House East Wing, which Trump had demolished without notifying Congress.

A federal district judge had issued an injunction blocking above-ground construction, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld that injunction on August 7, while allowing underground bunker work to continue.

The Trump administration had argued the injunction would improperly give a single district judge authority over presidential security decisions, while the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which brought the lawsuit, opposed any Supreme Court intervention. The Roberts order is temporary pending further action by the full court.