Trump touts White House ballroom with cocktail area and bomb shelters as court deadline looms Friday

Topline

President Donald Trump has described his planned White House ballroom as featuring outdoor space for "cocktails," along with "bomb shelters" and stone that he claims will last "over 1 million years." He made the remarks to reporters while praising the structure, which his administration is rushing to complete before a court can intervene.

Key Facts

• Trump provided a rapid-fire breakdown of the ballroom's features while giving reporters a tour of the construction site, alongside a new helipad being built on the White House lawn.
• He stated that the stone used for the project "will never break, it will never leak," is "rated a million-year plus," and weighs "35,000 pounds per square inch."
• According to Trump, the ballroom will allow patrons to "get out of the car and they walk down this path onto that and they can have cocktails and everything outside of the White House and then they go into the ballroom," which he described as having "so much a military component with the drones and bomb shelters and everything else we have in there."
• Trump's comments come as the Supreme Court considers whether to weigh in on the project, after lower courts ruled it cannot proceed without congressional approval.
• In its latest argument, the Trump administration told the high court that construction is too far along to be stopped now, with crews working 20 hours a day, seven days a week in an apparent effort to complete as much of the structure as possible before a court can halt it. The ballroom is scheduled to open in 2028.
• Trump said Wednesday he "can't imagine" the conservative-majority court ruling against the ballroom, insisting, "we've gotten tremendous architectural reviews, it's beautiful."

Key Background

The Justice Department argued in a filing Wednesday that stopping construction now could harm national security interests, as the project includes a new underground security complex. It also disputed claims by the National Trust for Historic Preservation—which is suing to block the ballroom—that the project is unsightly, arguing that such objections create a "see something, sue something" precedent that would allow legal action whenever the government does something unpopular. The National Trust has accused the Trump administration of trying to "outrun judicial review" by rushing to complete the ballroom before the court can stop it. The administration brought the case to the Supreme Court earlier this month after an appeals court sided with lower courts in ruling the project cannot continue without congressional approval.

What to Watch For

The appeals court ruling that would halt construction of the ballroom is set to take effect Friday without intervention from the Supreme Court.

Further Reading

• Trump Administration Says It Doesn't Matter If People Think White House Ballroom Is Ugly (Forbes)
• Trump Asks Supreme Court To Allow White House Ballroom Construction (Forbes)
• Trump's DOJ Argues They Could Tear Down The Statue Of Liberty Without Legal Repercussions (Forbes)