Donald Trump , the New York Real Estate guy, turned President, get’s his foot in the door on his dream White House addtion..
A federal judge set new limits on President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom, saying construction could proceed only on an underground portion of the project deemed necessary by the military, and not on the 90,000-square-foot aboveground addition that Trump has eyed to entertain VIP guests.
“National security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity,” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote Thursday. He said the Trump administration could also take steps to secure the construction site to make it safe for people on the White House grounds….
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Trump has said that the military is building a “massive complex” under the ballroom, but the administration has declined to offer details about the work. It has long been known that the area underneath the former East Wing contained secure facilities that the president and staff members could use in an emergency.
Trump had argued that Leon’s order allows him to keep building the ballroom, too, citing his plans to add bulletproof glass, bomb shelters and other security features to the building.
“This is positive for us,” Trump told reporters last month, insisting that work could continue.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the organization that sued to block the ballroom construction last year, disputed Trump’s interpretation and asked Leon to explicitly bar any aboveground construction on the ballroom until it received authorization from federal panels and Congress. It also questioned the Trump administration’s claim that pausing the project puts the president at risk….
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“No matter how much the Defendants insist otherwise, the lack of a massive ballroom on the White House grounds is not a national-security emergency,” lawyers for the National Trust wrote in a filing Tuesday. They noted that Trump continues to live at the White House and entertain foreign dignitaries, despite the administration’s claim that the current situation poses a security risk….
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