Construction continues on the new helipad on the South Lawn and East Wing Ballroom of the White House on August 10, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow construction to continue on the White House ballroom, a week after a federal appeals court ordered a halt to the $400 million construction project.
The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to immediately block a lower court’s preliminary injunction against further construction on the East Wing site of the White House, which the president demolished last year without notifying Congress.
An Aug. 7 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a federal district judge’s injunction. The injunction is currently scheduled to go into effect next Friday, August 21st.
President Trump has increasingly argued that building the ballroom is a matter of national security and military readiness, as the ballroom’s roof will feature what he calls a “drone port.”
In Friday’s application to the Supreme Court, U.S. Attorney General D. John Sauer emphasized the building’s function as a military asset.
“This lawsuit includes an unusual and unlawful injunction halting the ongoing construction of a joint military complex in the East Wing of the White House that includes fully secure banquet space, a critical national security necessity,” Sauer wrote.
If the appeals court’s injunction is allowed to go into effect, Sauer wrote, “a single district judge would be unfairly appointed as the sole arbiter of whether further construction is ‘absolutely necessary’ to protect the safety of the President, his family, staff, and visitors to the White House, including foreign dignitaries and presidents and prime ministers of other countries.”
