A U.S. judge is holding a hearing Tuesday in a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of starting the ballroom project without legal approval.
Watch the removal of the Washington Monument from the east wing of the White House
Video taken from the Washington Monument shows construction workers preparing the site for the White House’s new ballroom.
WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s plan to build a $300 million ballroom on the White House grounds faces an early court hearing on Dec. 16, with preservationists accusing the president of illegally demolishing the east wing in a major renovation and critics calling it an abuse of power.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon has scheduled a hearing for 3:30 p.m. ET in a lawsuit filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation that accuses the Trump administration and several federal agencies of starting the 90,000-square-foot project without legally required reviews and approvals.
The president has made a series of changes to the White House since returning to office in January. He installed gold ornaments throughout the Oval Office and paved the lawn of the Rose Garden to create a patio similar to his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida.
In a huge banquet hall, these changes will seem small. Footage of heavy machinery rushing into the 120-year-old east wing of the White House to clear the site for construction has sparked outrage as critics accuse President Trump of an abuse of power.
“No president, not President Trump, nor President Biden, nor anyone else, is legally permitted to demolish any portion of the White House without any review,” the National Trust’s lawsuit said.
The group claims the project has already caused “irreparable harm” to the White House and its grounds and is seeking a temporary restraining order to halt construction while the lawsuit proceeds.
The government said in a Dec. 15 filing that the project is legal and follows a long line of presidential renovations that include construction of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s East Wing itself. The emergency order is not needed because the banquet hall is needed for state events, its design is still being developed and ground construction is not planned until April, according to the filing.
“The President has the legal authority to change the structure of the official residence, and that authority is supported by the underlying principles of executive power,” the filing states.
Unable to gather public input, Trump demolished the East Wing and began construction of the ballroom, ignoring a statute requiring consultation with the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission on Fine Arts, according to the complaint.
The National Trust said it filed the lawsuit, asking the administration to at least comply with “procedural requirements to protect the public’s opportunity to be informed and comment on the Ballroom Project.”
