Trump fumes as judge orders pause to construction of $400m White House ballroom
Donald Trump has hit back after a judge ordered a pause to the construction of his $400m White House ballroom.
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US District Judge Richard Leon granted a temporary halt to construction following legal action brought by the conservationist group National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The ballroom, which also houses a “massive military complex”, sits on the site where the East Wing of the White House used to be and was founded by the US president as well as a slew of private donors.
The judge wrote: "I have concluded that the National Trust is likely to succeed on the merits because no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have.
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"The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!"
The judge said the case "raises novel and weighty issues, that halting an ongoing construction project may raise logistical issues" and order construction be paused for 14 days.
Responding to the order, Trump said the National Trust for Historic Preservation "a radical left group of lunatics whose funding was stopped by Congress in 2005".
He added that the group "sues me for a ballroom that is under budget, ahead of schedule, being built at no cost to the taxpayer, and will be the finest building of its kind anywhere in the world".
It comes after the US President confirmed his military is building a “massive complex” underneath the ballroom.
“The military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that’s under construction, and we’re doing very well, so we’re ahead of schedule,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One last week.
“It’s part of it, the ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what’s being built under the military [complex] including [protection] from drones and including from any other thing.
“The glass on the windows is extremely thick – it’s high-grade bulletproof glass.”Brandishing a render of the ballroom, Trump added: “We just got these in from the architects. A lot of people are talking about how beautiful the ballroom is.
“For 150 years, they’ve wanted to build a ballroom at the White House, and other presidents have wanted it [for] when we have dignitaries coming, like President Xi of China, or anybody else, and we have very small rooms that are not big enough to handle the kind of capacity that you need.
“This [the ballroom] is the same height as the White House – it’s an incredible fitting. I think it’ll be the finest ballroom of its kind anywhere in the world.“A lot of people are giving it really good reviews, some are giving it reviews without even seeing the building, because these pictures just came out today.”
The President added he’d been “so busy fighting wars” he had to reveal the plans while aboard Air Force One.
He said: “I don’t have time to do this. I’m fighting wars and other things. But this is important because this is going to be with us for a long time.”