Trump’s ballroom construction given green light for now

Amid the quiet of the Supreme Court of the United States’ three-month recess, Chief Justice John Roberts was still working. Roberts on Friday afternoon ordered that President Donald Trump could continue construction on his gilded neoclassical White House State Ballroom, for now.

Roberts’ decision followed a series of legal actions—first by a federal judge in April, and later by an appeals court in August—that upheld a judge’s order to halt above-ground ballroom construction until Congress authorizes it. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the Supreme Court to pause the appeals court injunction on Aug. 14, and Roberts on Friday granted the request. Now, construction on the ballroom, which Sauer says is 65% complete, can continue, while the Supreme Court deliberates its final decision.

What has already been done? It’s been over a year since Trump announced his plan to tear down the East Wing of the White House and replace it with a 90,000-square-foot ballroom. The White House’s original statement focused on expanding space for gatherings—only briefly mentioning security enhancements and modifications. But over time, Trump and his supporters have turned to emphasizing the need for a secure place to welcome world leaders, and the plans have reflected that goal. Currently, the East Wing is composed of a 70-foot-high concrete-and-steel superstructure—but renderings of the planned ballroom reveal a gold and crystal studded hall with a heavily fortified drone port on the roof. Trump said the building will be drone-, bullet-, and missile-proof, “as much as something can be missile-proof.”

Regardless of what happens to above-ground construction, the appeals court did not seek to halt work being done to update the underground bunker, built in the 1940s by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The renovations will include medical facilities, bomb shelters, and more, Sauer wrote.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the arguments for and against the ballroom.