White House Ballroom Project

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon on Tuesday denied the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt demolition and construction of a planned White House East Wing ballroom, but barred for two weeks any below‑ground work that would determine the ballroom’s final placement or footprint, with violations subject to removal. He also ordered the government to submit construction drawings to the National Capital Planning Commission by year‑end and set a preliminary injunction hearing for the second week of January; the administration, citing Secret Service warnings that a pause would undermine protective operations, says above‑grade work is not expected to begin until April and will provide draft plans to the NCPC and the Commission of Fine Arts.

Rep. Jamie Raskin plans to introduce the "People's White House Historic Preservation Act" to require Section 106 historic-review and mandatory consultations with the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts before any White House renovation ground‑breaking, after the East Wing was demolished in October as part of a roughly $300 million ballroom project the Park Service says will finish by Summer 2028. The administration says consultations with NCPC and CFA will begin "in the coming weeks" and that above‑grade work could start as early as April 2026 while defending the project as a national‑security necessity amid a preservationist lawsuit alleging violations of federal environmental and administrative laws.