The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to step in before August 21, when an injunction is set to halt above-ground construction of the new White House ballroom.
The emergency application says a stop-work order would put presidential security at risk and leave the unfinished structure vulnerable. Trump put it more bluntly. He accused the National Trust for Historic Preservation of exposing “Top Military Secrets” by filing the lawsuit.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer also pointed to a July 8 missile threat against Air Force One, grouping it with what he called a “growing number of recent assassination attempts” against Trump.
“President Trump has been the target of a growing number of recent assassination attempts, including . . . the threat of a missile attack against Air Force One on July 8.”
Trump was preparing to leave a NATO summit in Turkey when the threat surfaced. The administration says he was secretly moved from one presidential aircraft in a catering truck and departed aboard another military jet. The press pool, White House staff, and several Cabinet officials believed he had left on the original aircraft.
That episode is part of the administration’s case for finishing the ballroom and East Wing project. The plans call for underground security facilities, military equipment, and what Trump described as a rooftop “DronePort.”
Sauer told the justices:
“The updated East Wing complex is absolutely required and should not be enjoined.”
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon blocked above-ground construction after finding that the administration lacked express congressional authorization. The D.C. Circuit upheld the injunction in a 2-1 ruling. Work below ground involving presidential security may continue, but the order against above-ground construction takes effect August 21 unless the Supreme Court intervenes.
Judge Neomi Roa dissented. She called the injunction a “blatant abuse of discretion” and “judicial overreach beyond the proper province of the federal courts.”
The Trust’s standing argument rests on one member, Alison Hoagland. She says she plans to walk near the White House about once a month and expects the project to injure her aesthetic, cultural, and historical interests. The government calls her a “strolling passerby” whose displeasure with the building’s appearance cannot establish a concrete and particularized injury under Article III.
Trump responded by calling the National Trust’s leaders “TRAITORS” and arguing that their lawsuit forced the administration to disclose sensitive details about the project.
“They revealed Top Military Secrets! . . . They were asked by the United States Military not to bring this suit because of the Top Secret nature of the important facility being built.”
The National Trust says the administration unlawfully demolished the East Wing and began the project without congressional authorization or the required review process. Its lawsuit, the group says, seeks compliance with federal law and public review of the project. Trump also singled out National Trust President Carol Quillen, arguing that she lacked standing to challenge the project and was not personally named as a plaintiff, although the organization filed the suit.
Unless the Supreme Court intervenes, the injunction takes effect August 21 against a project that the government says is already 65 percent complete. A 250-person crew is working 20-hour days on a concrete-and-steel superstructure that rises as high as 70 feet above ground.
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