President Trump filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court over his $400 million White House ballroom project.
The Friday filing, as reported here, asks the justices to reverse a D.C. appeals court ruling that blocked above-ground construction at the former East Wing site without congressional approval. And folks, the reasoning Trump is using is absolutely wild.
Solicitor General John Sauer went full national security mode in the filing, citing assassination attempts on Trump in recent years as justification for the massive renovation. That is right, the ballroom is being pitched as a matter of presidential survival. Sauer wrote that the president is not some renter in the building, but rather the sole elected leader of the entire Executive Branch, and that Congress has always permitted White House occupants to renovate and secure the property without interference.
Sauer also called the lower court injunction "judicial overreach" that goes way beyond what federal courts should be doing. Bold words when you are asking nine justices to bail out your construction project.
But wait, it gets juicier. New architectural renderings submitted alongside the emergency motion reveal updated design details for the ballroom, including at least two enormous gold presidential seals that would be mounted on the exterior of the building. Because nothing screams national security quite like giant golden seals on the outside of your party venue.
The Supreme Court appeal comes after Trump got smacked down repeatedly in lower courts. Judges ruled he simply cannot proceed with the ballroom without getting lawmakers on board first. The freshest loss landed on August 7, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a federal judge's order halting all above-ground work. However, that same court gave Trump a 14-day window before the ruling kicked in, which cracked open just enough time to rush to the Supreme Court.
Here is the interesting wrinkle. Both lower court rulings still allow construction to continue on a sophisticated underground bunker beneath the planned ballroom. So the digging goes on while the glitzy stuff above ground stays frozen in legal limbo.
This whole saga represents the very first time one of Trump's ambitious Washington construction ventures has climbed all the way to the nation's highest court. And judges reviewing other challenges to the president's plans for reshaping the capital have similarly rejected his sweeping claims of executive authority.
So now the fate of a $400 million ballroom, complete with golden presidential seals, sits in the hands of the Supreme Court. The president says it is about keeping him safe. Critics say it is about bypassing Congress. Either way, this is one of the most bizarre construction disputes in White House history, and it is not over yet.
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