(CNN) — The Supreme Court has temporarily allowed President Donald Trump to continue working on a massive new ballroom at the White House, freezing a court ruling that would have required construction to stop at midnight Friday.
Friday afternoon’s order doesn’t address the legality of the project, which two other courts have said Trump is pursuing unlawfully because Congress hasn’t approved it. Instead, it’s meant to give the justices additional time to consider Trump’s request that the adverse rulings be paused indefinitely.
Construction has been progressing rapidly, with a 250-person crew working 20-hour days, 7 days per week, according to a filing submitted by the Trump administration to the Supreme Court. The government put the ballroom complex at “65% complete in its entirety.”
The order from Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency cases rising from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, did not set a new deadline, meaning the construciton can continue at the White House until the Supreme Court issues another order.
Because it’s an administrative stay handled solely by Roberts, there was no reasoning, vote count or dissent. Roberts is certain to refer to the case to all nine justices.
Since returning to office last year, Trump, who spent decades as a real estate developer, has sought to remake various parts of Washington to suit his personal tastes. The ballroom project has been the most substantial part of that effort, with his destruction of the former White House East Wing last year to make room for the event space causing consternation on both sides of the aisle.
“This will be the greatest military complex slash ballroom anywhere in the world. There won’t be anything like it,” Trump said in August as he discussed the project.
The president views the ballroom and other construction projects as the foundation of his legacy, according to sources familiar with his thinking, and recently suggested that those who oppose the effort are “very disloyal to our country.”
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the nation’s top historic preservation group, sued over the project in December and later convinced a federal judge in DC to order Trump to stop with work on the ballroom until Congress gives him authority to move forward.
The judge, Richard Leon, permitted workers to continue building a highly sophisticated bunker beneath the planned ballroom, citing Trump’s argument at the time that the two spaces were distinct from one another.
But as time went on, Trump and top officials have increasingly said that the entire structure was needed for national security reasons, citing attempts that have been made on the president’s life in recent years. Trump tried, unsuccessfully, to get the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to undo Leon’s ruling. But in early August, the court agreed with the judge in a divided ruling that required work to cease starting August 21.
“Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help,” the DC Circuit said in its 2-1 ruling.
“The National Trust has shown, compellingly, that Congress has not ceded unfettered authority to the Executive Branch to dramatically redesign, reshape, and reconstruct the White House – the People’s House – to fit a particular President’s desires,” the appeals court concluded.
Days later, Trump asked the Supreme Court to intervene. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that the ballroom was necessary because of earlier threats to the president’s life, national security needs and architectural values.
“The President of the United States of America is not a tenant, but rather the sole, elected head of the Executive Branch, and Congress has authorized him to renovate, secure, and protect the White House and its grounds, as other Presidents have been allowed to do, without exception,” Sauer wrote, going on to describe Leon’s ruling as “judicial overreach.”
Debate over standing
One of the government’s principal arguments in the case is that the Trust lacks the legal right – known as “standing” – to sue in the first place. Lower courts have said that the Trust has standing because one of its members, Alison Hoagland, has shown that her enjoyment of the White House as an architectural historian is being harmed by the new ballroom.
“The person said she walked along and she didn’t like the view, even though nothing was built,” Trump said this week as he discussed the case. “The woman has absolutely no standing.”
In asking the justices to step into the dispute, the administration revealed how much construction had progressed in recent months. Filings submitted to the court said hundreds of workers were spending “20 hours a day, 7 days a week to keep the project ahead of schedule and under budget,” and that it was already more than halfway done.
Sauer said that among the building materials being used is a type of concrete that is also used at nuclear power plants and nearly impossible to deconstruct.
Lawyers for the Trust seized on that point as they urged the Supreme Court to reject Trump’s request. They said the administration was trying to “outrun judicial review” by speeding ahead with a project that may, eventually, be irreversible.
A decision favorable to the president, the Trust told the justices in court papers, would cause the preservationists the type of irreparable harm courts weighing emergency disputes are typically sympathetic to.
“Nothing in the district court’s carefully tailored injunction prevents them from continuing work on the bunker, securing the East Wing site, or ensuring the safety of the President, his family, and staff,” the Trust’s lawyers wrote. “All the injunction stops is construction of a ballroom without prior congressional approval. Petitioners have not – and cannot – show that being temporarily unable to build that ballroom demands emergency relief.”
A recent review from PolitiFact found that in 2026, the president has spent significant time talking about those projects during public remarks — more than any other topic, with the exception of his war with Iran.
And as the legal fight has intensified, the price tag of the ballroom has steadily increased. The administration initially put the cost at $200 million. Trump said in the fall it would cost “about $300 million.” This month, he said that “$400 million almost” had already been spent.
The Washington Post obtained internal contracts and documents setting the cost of Trump’s changes to the White House complex, including the Rose Garden, a helipad, and other projects, at roughly $900 million.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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