President Donald Trump showed off a rendition of the East Wing with the new White House Ballroom in October to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during a White House meeting. File Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
The Trump administration on Thursday made the case that the $400 million ballroom planned for the White House is needed to ensure its “safety and security.”
In two filings with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the administration cited a series of safety concerns, from the White House grounds itself to President Donald Trump, his family and his staff, NBC News reported.
In one of the filings, the administration said that stopping construction now — which a federal judge ordered to happen on April 1 — “would imperil the President and national security, and indefinitely leave a large hole beside the executive residence.”
The national security and safety concerns cited by the administration in their filings refer to elements of the 90,000-square-foot replacement of the White House’s former East Wing that include bomb shelters, a hospital and medical area and other “top secret military installations, structures and equipment.”
Based on its concerns, the administration asked the court to rule by Friday and said that it would take an appeal to the Supreme Court if it is not given clearance to continue all of the construction, The Hill reported.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has said that pausing construction on the ballroom and public facing building design for legal reviews does not affect national security or the ability to work on underground bunker and military assets in the meantime.
“The District Court’s injunction does not prevent Defendants from working on the underground bunker their motion exhaustively describes; indeed, the Trust has never objected to that,” the group told the court on Wednesday.
The Trump administration started demolition on the East Wing of the White House last September during the first phase of the project, based on what he said was a need for a modern event space inside the building.
The project is currently projected to cost around $400 million — double the initial $200 million Trump estimated it to cost — which he said will be funded by private donations and be completed by the end of his current presidential term in 2029.
This week in Washington
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon on Wednesday. Yesterday, the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire, with the U.S. suspending bombing in Iran for two weeks if the country reopens the Straight of Hormuz. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
