JUST IN: Judge Orders Trump to Stop Building White House Ballroom

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A federal judge ordered President Donald Trump to halt building his much-publicized and much-criticized $400 million ballroom at the White House on Tuesday.

Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C. granted a request for a preliminary injunction by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Reuters reported. The judge said the Trump administration cannot proceed with the ballroom — which Trump is funding via private donations and his own dough — until it is approved by Congress.

The Associated Press reported:

Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, 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.”

“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 ruling comes after Trump started the project last year by demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make room for the 90,000 square foot ballroom. Trump bragged about the “massive” military complex that will go under the ballroom while showing off sketches of the building last weekend.

That coincided with The New York Times running a story that took a critical look at the construction of the ballroom — a story that was ripped by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt soon after.

Trump’s ballroom has been heavily scrutinized by his critics and has faced several legal challenges; Trump slammed one of those “stupid” legal challenges last weekend from the National Capital Planning Commission.

The president responded to the judge’s ruling on Tuesday afternoon in a post on Truth Social.

He asked why the National Trust for Historic Preservation would take issue with his ballroom — which is “under budget, ahead of schedule, being built at no cost to the Taxpayer, and will be the finest Building of its kinds anywhere in the World” — but not the revamping of the Federal Reserve building, which he has criticized Fed Chair Jerome Powell for.

Trump added it “doesn’t make much sense” that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) avoided a lawsuit for his “RAILROAD TO NOWHERE.”

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