The Trump administration said in a court filing Monday that the president’s White House ballroom construction project must continue for unexplained national security reasons and because a preservationists’ organization that wants it stopped has no standing to sue.
The filing was in response to a lawsuit filed last Friday by the National Trust for Historic Preservation asking a federal judge to halt President Donald Trump’s project until it goes through multiple independent reviews and a public comment period and wins approval from Congress.
The administration’s 36-page filing included a declaration from Matthew C. Quinn, deputy director of the U.S. Secret Service, the agency responsible for the security of the president and other high-ranking officials, that said more work on the site of the former White House East Wing is still needed to meet the agency’s “safety and security requirements.” The filing did not explain the specific national security concerns; the administration has offered to share classified details with the judge in a private, in-person setting without the plaintiffs present.
Quinn said even a temporary halt to construction would “consequently hamper” the agency’s ability to fulfill its statutory obligations and its protective mission.
A hearing in the case was scheduled for Tuesday in federal court in Washington.
The government’s response offered the most comprehensive look yet at the ballroom construction project, including a window into how it was so swiftly approved by the Trump administration bureaucracy and its expanding scope.
Trump had the East Wing torn down in October as part of his plan to build an estimated $300 million, 90,000-square-foot (27,432-square-meter) ballroom able to accommodate about 1,000 people before his term ends in January 2029. He says presidents before him long have wanted an event space larger than the rooms currently at the White House, and says the ballroom would end the practice of entertaining visiting foreign dignitaries in large, temporary pavilions on the south grounds.
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