Court Accepts Trump Argument That Ballroom Construction Is Matter of National Security

Artist renderings of the new White House East Wing and Ballroom are photographed Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)

An appeals court has accepted President Donald Trump’s argument that continuing his massive ballroom project was a matter of national security.

Construction will now continue on Trump’s $400 million ballroom featuring an underground bunker despite federal Judge Richard Leon’s preliminary injunction imposed earlier this month.

Under the injunction, construction was to cease by April 14, but Trump’s lawyers argued that would leave “a massive excavation and structurally completed site adjacent to the now open and exposed Executive Mansion” that would threaten “grave national-security harms to the White House, the President and his family, and the President’s staff.”

Without the ballroom, Trump would be vulnerable to “hostile attacks via drones, ballistic missiles, bullets, biohazards” and other potential threats, the lawyers argued.

On Saturday, the appeals court agreed, writing that the “current safety of the President, as well as his family & staff, plainly outweighs future aesthetic harm,” as argued by The National Trust, which sued the president.

The appeals court wrote:

The upgrades to the East Wing are not cosmetic; instead, they involve the use of missile-resistant steel columns, beams, drone-proof roofing materials, and bullet, ballistic, and blast proof glass windows. They also include the installation of bomb shelters, hospital and medical facilities, protective partitioning, and topsecret military installations, air conditioning, heating, venting, and more. These upgrades, alterations, and improvements to the dilapidated, infested, and structurally unsound prior East Wing, are essential to protecting the President, his family, and his staff, as well as the White House itself, and the entire project flows from them.

The ruling added, “Congress clearly delegated to the President the power to implement these changes.”

Trump famously tore down the historic East Wing of the White House in October, after promising that the structure would not be compromised. He has claimed that the bill for the 90,000 sq. foot ballroom was being taken care of by donations and not by tax payer dollars.

Aboard Air Force One in March, Trump blamed The National Trust’s lawsuit for outing his plans for the underground bunker.

“Now, the military is building a big complex under the ballroom, which has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed,” Trump told reporters. “But the military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that’s under construction and we’re doing very well.”

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