President Donald Trump doesn’t have the authority to fast-track his new White House ballroom without Congress’s authority, a divided panel of appellate court judges in Washington, D.C., said Friday.
In the latest blow to Trump’s efforts to build the 90,000-square-foot addition to the White House, two judges on the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled the president must halt construction until he seeks Congress’s approval.
“Each President is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House and its Executive Residence,” the judges wrote.
“We are aware of no instance in American history in which a President unilaterally and using privately collected funds demolished substantial portions of the White House that Congress authorized to be built and American taxpayers paid for. Until now.”
The court will pause the ruling from taking effect for two weeks to give the Trump administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court.
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