Trump administration says White House ballroom construction is a matter
of national security
[December 16, 2025]
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said in a court filing Monday
that the president’s White House ballroom construction project must
continue for unexplained national security reasons and because a
preservationists' organization that wants it stopped has no standing to
sue.
The filing was in response to a lawsuit filed last Friday by the
National Trust for Historic Preservation asking a federal judge to halt
President Donald Trump's project until it goes through multiple
independent reviews and a public comment period and wins approval from
Congress.
The administration's 36-page filing included a declaration from Matthew
C. Quinn, deputy director of the U.S. Secret Service, the agency
responsible for the security of the president and other high-ranking
officials, that said more work on the site of the former White House
East Wing is still needed to meet the agency’s “safety and security
requirements.” The filing did not explain the specific national security
concerns; the administration has offered to share classified details
with the judge in a private, in-person setting without the plaintiffs
present.
The East Wing had sat atop a emergency operations bunker for the
president.
Quinn said even a temporary halt to construction would “consequently
hamper” the agency's ability to fulfill its statutory obligations and
its protective mission.
A hearing in the case was scheduled for Tuesday in federal court in
Washington.
The government’s response offered the most comprehensive look yet at the
ballroom construction project, including a window into how it was so
swiftly approved by the Trump administration bureaucracy and its
expanding scope.
The filings assert that final plans for the ballroom have yet to be
finalized despite the continuing demolition and other work to prepare
the site for eventual construction. Below-ground work on the site
continues, wrote John Stanwich, the National Park Service’s liaison to
the White House, and work on the foundations is set to begin in January.
Above-ground construction “is not anticipated to begin until April 2026,
at the earliest,” he wrote.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation did not respond to email
messages seeking comment.
The privately funded group last week asked the U.S. District Court to
block Trump's project.
“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White
House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President
Biden, and not anyone else,” the lawsuit states. “And no president is
legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without
giving the public the opportunity to weigh in.”
Trump had the East Wing torn down in October as part of his plan to
build an estimated $300 million, 90,000-square-foot
(27,432-square-meter) ballroom able to accommodate about 1,000 people
before his term ends in January 2029. He says presidents before him long
have wanted an event space larger than the rooms currently at the White
House, and says the ballroom would end the practice of entertaining
visiting foreign dignitaries in large, temporary pavilions on the south
grounds.
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Work continues on the construction of the ballroom at the White
House, Tuesday, Dec., 9, 2025, in Washington, where the East Wing
once stood. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
The Trust asserts that the plans should have been submitted to the
National Capital Planning Commission, the Commission of Fine Arts
and Congress before any action was taken. The lawsuit notes that the
Trust wrote to those entities and the National Park Service on Oct.
21, after East Wing demolition began, urging a stop to the project
and asking the administration to comply with federal law, but
received no response.
The lawsuit cites several federal statutes and rules detailing the
role the planning and fine arts commission and lawmakers play in
U.S. government construction projects.
The administration argued in its response that the president has the
authority to modify the White House and included the extensive
history of changes and additions to the Executive Mansion since it
was built more than 200 years ago. It also asserted that the
president is not subject to the statutes cited by the plaintiffs.
Department of Justice attorneys said in the filing that the
plaintiff's claims about the East Wing demolition are “moot” because
the tear-down cannot be undone. The administration also argues that
claims about future construction are “unripe” because the plans are
not final.
The administration also contends that the Trust cannot establish
“irreparable harm” because above-ground construction is not expected
until spring. It argues that the reviews sought in the lawsuit,
consultation with the National Capital Planning Commission and the
Commission of Fine Arts, “will soon be underway without this Court's
involvement.”
Trump's ballroom project has prompted criticism in the historic
preservation and architectural communities, and among his political
adversaries, but the lawsuit is the most tangible effort thus far to
alter or stop his plans for an addition that itself would be nearly
twice the size of the White House before the East Wing was torn
down.
In 2000, the National Park Service's Comprehensive Design Plan for
the White House first identified the need for a larger event space
to address an increase in visitors and to provide a venue suitable
for major events, according to the administration's filing.
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