Trump’s DOJ claims East Wing was ‘infested’ and ‘dilapidated’ in latest appeal over White House ballroom

In a filing with a D.C. appeals court, the government lists several additions to the planned 90,000-square-foot structure, including “missile-resistant steel columns, beams, drone-proof roofing materials, and bullet, ballistic, and blast proof glass windows.”

There will be “bomb shelters, hospital and medical facilities, protective partitioning, and top-secret military installations, air conditioning, heating, venting, and more,” according to Thursday night’s filing from Department of Justice attorneys.

Those updates, they argue, replace a “dilapidated, infested and structurally unsound” East Wing that was bulldozed last year.

The additions are “essential to protecting the president, his family, and his staff, as well as the White House itself, and the entire project flows from them,” according to the Justice Department.

Demolition of the East Wing destroyed the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, a bunker-like underground shelter and communications complex.

It’s unclear why the facility was destroyed along with the above-ground structure, or why the president needs additional fortification for one of the most protected buildings in the world. The White House already has bulletproof windows and anti-aircraft systems, and there are strict flight rules around the property.

It’s also unclear what “infested” the East Wing that demanded the demolition of the entire structure rather than extermination.

Mice, cockroaches and ants were present in the West Wing in 2017, according to requests for repairs filed with the General Services Administration.

White House officials called for maintenance workers to respond to reports of mice in the mess food service area and in the Situation Room, there were at least four reported cockroach infestations, and ants were reported inside the White House chief of staff’s office, according to the documents.

In a colorful, exclamation-point filled order last month, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said the president is the “steward” of the White House but “he is not, however, the owner!”

Any construction requires congressional authorization, regardless of whether the president plans to use private or public dollars to fund his plans, according to Leon.

“Congress is the collective voice of the American people in our system of government … and the Constitution itself vests authority over federal property, including the White House, in Congress!” wrote Leon, an appointee of Republican president George W. Bush.

“After all, the White House does not belong to any one man — not even a president!” he added. “Unless and until Congress blesses this project through statutory authorization, construction has to stop!”

The judge’s order arrived before a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, the agency tasked with approving construction on federal property in the nation’s capital. The panel, which received a massive outpouring of negative public comments on the project, swiftly approved the plans.

But congressional approval doesn’t seem to be in the cards. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have not publicly stated whether lawmakers will bring up legislation, and neither have any leaders of relevant congressional committees that would have to wrangle with the issue if it landed on their plates.

The Trump administration is now asking the appeals court to block Judge Leon’s order from taking effect for another two weeks so the government can prepare to take its request to the Supreme Court.

In court filings this week, the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, which sued the administration to stop further demolition, said the government’s purported “emergency” reasons for its appeal “remains unclear.”

“Defendants appear to contend that being prevented from illegally constructing a massive ballroom constitutes a national security emergency. It plainly does not,” lawyers for the group wrote.

“The District Court’s injunction does not prevent Defendants from working on the underground bunker their motion exhaustively describes; indeed, the Trust has never objected to that,” the filing states.

“The Court’s injunction simply prevents Defendants from constructing the ballroom without Congress’s specific and express approval,” attorneys wrote. “And as is obvious, the absence of a massive ballroom on White House grounds has not stopped this (or any other) President from residing at the White House or hosting events there. Temporarily halting the ballroom project until it complies with the law will not irreparably harm Defendants or the nation.”

The Independent has requested comment from the White House.