Trump Unloads in 684-Word Rant After Judge Blocks Ballroom
Trump argued that no president would ever be safe without his ballroom in a series of unhinged posts.
President Donald Trump launched a sweeping three-part attack on a federal judge, claiming that the $400 million White House ballroom project poses a national security threat after the judge ordered a halt to construction.
Judge Richard Leon, appointed by former President George W. Bush, explained his decision Thursday to stop construction of the ballroom at the White House.
The chief district court judge stated that construction of the ballroom could not proceed without congressional approval, but noted that Trump could continue building his underground bunker.
President Trump rejected the halt to the project and posted three messages attacking the judge and asserting that no future president would be safe in the White House without the ballroom.
Trump, 79, wrote on Truth Social: “The White House does not have an auditorium (without public funding!), something presidents have desperately wanted for more than 150 years. But a Trump-hating District of Columbia judge who has worked to undermine national security and ensure that this great gift to America is delayed or never built is trying to prevent future presidents and world leaders from having a secure and spacious meeting place—an auditorium.”
His attack didn’t end there. In the same post, Trump claimed the auditorium would be “equipped with bomb shelters, a hospital and state-of-the-art medical facilities, protective barriers, top-secret military installations, structures and equipment, missile-proof steel structures, columns, ceilings and beams, drone-proof ceilings, military ventilation systems, and bulletproof and blast-proof glass.”
He asserted that the order meant “no future president residing in the White House without this auditorium would be safe at any event, inauguration, or world summit.”
The president argued that the auditorium was now essential and that materials for the project were already on their way.
“If anyone, especially someone without standing, had a complaint, why didn’t they file it months ago, long before construction began? The public record is available for everyone to review.”
He accused the judge of “illegally overstepping his authority” and called him “out of control.”
“This is a mockery of our judicial system!” Trump declared. “The auditorium is critical to our national security, and no judge can be allowed to stop this historic and militarily necessary project.”
But Leon stood firm in his ten-page ruling on Thursday, writing: “National security is not a blank check to proceed with illegal activities.”
Leon amended his order to specifically halt construction of the auditorium but allowed the president to continue building the underground military complex.
He specified that the permitted construction includes any “highly classified excavation, bunker, bomb shelter, protective barriers, military installations, and medical and hospital facilities.”
Leon clarified that surface work is limited to construction “necessary to cover, secure, and protect these facilities.”
He wrote: “In my opinion, the security exception, as explained, permits us to proceed with measures crucial to national and presidential security, pending a final ruling in this case and any appeals.”
This comes after Trump complained late last month that a lawsuit seeking to prevent him from building the massive 90,000-square-meter ballroom forced him to disclose the highly classified underground military base under construction.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation—established by an act of Congress—filed a lawsuit against Mr. Trump late last year regarding this project. The organization argued that the President had bypassed review and oversight procedures, in clear violation of the law.
While the Trump administration had announced last summer its intention to build a ballroom funded by donations, Americans across the country were stunned the following autumn to see Mr. Trump abruptly proceed with the complete demolition of the “East Wing” to make way for the project, the expansion of which was accelerating at a rapid pace.
In a follow-up post that was singular, to say the least, released on Thursday, Mr. Trump claimed that the person behind the complaint was merely a “woman walking her dog,” asserting that she possessed “absolutely no legal standing to bring a lawsuit of such magnitude against our country.”
As part of the legal proceedings, a member of the National Trust did indeed testify regarding the harm she would suffer as a result of the project; however, Allison K. Hoagland—an architectural historian central to this case—made no mention of walking a dog in her testimony.
After Judge Leon issued his initial temporary restraining order late last month—thereby halting work on the ballroom—the President hastened to offer a new justification, arguing that construction work should be allowed to proceed.
Speaking from prepared notes in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump told reporters that the entire ballroom project fell under the purview of national security.
Mr. Trump announced: “We have a roof designed to be impervious to drones,” before listing a series of other details, including the use of armored glazing, the equipping of medical facilities, the installation of air treatment and climate control systems, and much more.
Mr. Trump asserted: “This is what is known as: the right to continue construction whenever it proves necessary.”
However, the court order issued on Thursday directly contradicted Mr. Trump’s argument that he had the right to carry out the entire project.
Consequently, Mr. Trump adopted a different approach; in a second post published on Thursday, he argued that the lawsuit should never have been filed and that it lacked any legal basis—this, despite the fact that the judge had previously ruled that the “National Trust” indeed possessed the necessary legal standing to initiate these proceedings.
Mr. Trump wrote: “Every Political ‘Pundit’ has said this case is meritless, even a JOKE, but it’s not a joke to me, or the people of America. Too much hard work, time, and money spent in order that a Judge can claim that he ruled against ‘DONALD TRUMP,’ something which I have gotten very used to, BUT WILL NOT ACCEPT!”
In a third message, the President launched a scathing attack, asserting that the aforementioned national security facilities could not be built independently of the ballroom. Trump argued: “The entire project is interconnected to form a massive, costly, and highly complex unit—a unit vital to the national security and military operations of the United States of America!” »
The President further argued that the decision handed down on Thursday “gravely endangers the lives and well-being of those who work—and those who will work in the future—at the White House, including all future Presidents of the United States and their families”—as if the United States had not existed for two hundred and fifty years without his private ballroom.
