Trump's White House ballroom is expected to get approved days after judge's ruling halting work

Source: The Associated Press, via WTOP

Trump’s White House ballroom is expected to get approved days after judge’s ruling halting work

The Associated Press
April 2, 2026, 7:44 AM


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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom is expected to win approval from a key agency on Thursday, days after a federal judge ordered a halt to construction unless Congress allows what would be the biggest structural change to the American landmark in more than 70 years. ... The National Capital Planning Commission, the agency tasked with approving construction on federal property in the Washington region, is going ahead with the vote because U.S. District Judge Richard Leon’s ruling on Tuesday affects construction activities, not the planning process, commission spokesperson Stephen Staudigl said.

But despite the agency’s expected approval, the judge’s ruling and the legal fight over the ballroom could stall progress on a legacy project that Trump is racing to see completed before the end of his term in early 2029. It’s among a series of changes the Republican president is planning for the nation’s capital to leave his lasting imprint while he’s still in office. ... The vote had initially been scheduled for March but was pushed to Thursday because so many people signed up to comment on it at the commission’s monthly meeting. The comments were overwhelmingly opposed to the ballroom.

Trump tweaks the ballroom design

Before voting Thursday, the commission will also consider some design changes to the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom addition that Trump announced aboard Air Force One on Sunday as he flew back to Washington from a weekend at his Florida home. ... He removed a large staircase on the south side of the building and added an uncovered porch to the west side. Architects and other critics of the project had panned the staircase as too large and basically useless since there was no way to enter the ballroom at the top.

Trump gave no reason for the changes, but a White House official said the president had considered comments from the National Capital Planning Commission and another oversight entity, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which approved the project earlier this year, as well as members of the public. ... The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the ballroom design and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that additional “refinements” had been made to the building’s exterior and that lead architect Shalom Baranes would present them on Thursday.

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Read more: https://wtop.com/white-house/2026/04/trumps-white-house-ballroom-is-expected-to-get-approved-days-after-judges-ruling-halting-work/