What does Trump say that building a mega ballroom in the White House is a matter of national security?

Dance is politics. It serves to defend moral national identities and religions, or on the contrary, to restrain them and change them for others. It serves to entertain visitors and relax diplomatic ties. It serves to denounce and point out, too. What we did not know is that it could also be a matter of national security.

The Government of the President of the United States has had to discover this to us, which has stated in a court presentation that its construction project must continue for reasons of national security. “Inexplicable,” says the agency. He also adds, in a text known this morning, that an organization of conservationists that wants to stop the works has no legitimacy to sue.

The filing comes in response to a complaint filed last Friday by him asking a federal judge to halt the president’s project — a venue for nearly a thousand guests — until it goes through multiple independent reviews and a public comment period and gains congressional approval.

Even more works

In the 36-page file, the Government now includes a statement from Matthew C. Quinn, deputy director of the US Secret Service, the agency responsible for the security of the president and other senior officials, who stated that more work is still required at the site of the former East Wing of the White House to meet the agency’s security requirements.

The file does not explain, according to AP, the specific national security concerns to which it refers. The Executive has offered to share classified information with the judge in a private setting and in person, without the presence of the plaintiffs.

The East Wing was located above an emergency operations bunker for the president, the aforementioned media reports.

Quinn says even a temporary suspension of construction would “consequently hamper” the agency’s ability to meet its legal obligations and protective mission.

A hearing on the case is scheduled for Tuesday in federal court in Washington.

Quick and without explanations

The government’s response offered the most comprehensive look yet at the ballroom construction project, including a window into how it was so quickly approved by the Trump Administration’s bureaucracy and its expanding scope.

Filed documents state that final plans for the ballroom have not yet been finalized, despite continued demolition and other work to prepare the ground for its eventual construction. Underground work continues, explains John Stanwich, National Park Service liaison to the White House, and foundation work is scheduled to begin in January. Construction on the ground “is not expected to begin until April 2026 at the earliest,” he wrote.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Last week, the privately funded group asked the U.S. District Court to block Trump’s project. “No president is legally permitted to demolish portions of the White House without review, not President Trump, not President Biden, nor anyone else,” the lawsuit states. “And no president is legally allowed to build a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in,” he said.

All luxury

Trump had the East Wing demolished in October as part of his plan to build a 300,000-square-foot ballroom costing an estimated $300 million and seating about 1,000 people before his term ends in January 2029. He says presidents before him have long wanted an event space larger than the White House’s current rooms and that the ballroom would end the practice of entertain visiting foreign dignitaries in large temporary pavilions on the southern grounds.

Basically, it aims to emulate the private room that he already has at Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Florida, when it was not in Trump Tower in New York, before and after his first term in Washington.

The Trust claims the plans should have been submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission, the Fine Arts Commission and Congress before any action was taken. The lawsuit states that the Trust wrote to those entities and the National Park Service on October 21, after the start of demolition of the East Wing, urging the suspension of the project and asking the administration to comply with federal law, but received no response.

The reason for the demand

The lawsuit cites several federal statutes and rules that detail the role the planning and fine arts commission and lawmakers play in U.S. government construction projects.

The Administration argued in its response that the president has the authority to modify the White House and included the extensive history of changes and additions made to the Executive Mansion since its construction more than 200 years ago. He also stated that the president is not bound by the statutes cited by the plaintiffs.

Justice Department lawyers stated in the filing that the plaintiff’s allegations regarding the demolition of the East Wing are irrelevant, since the demolition is irreversible. The administration also argues that allegations about future construction are unfounded, since the plans are not final.

The Administration also maintains that the Trust cannot prove irreparable harm since above-ground construction is not expected to occur until spring. It argues that the reviews requested in the lawsuit, as well as consultations with the National Capital Planning Commission and the Fine Arts Commission, “will soon begin without the intervention of this Court.”

Trump’s ballroom project has drawn criticism in the historic preservation and architecture communities and among his political adversaries, but the lawsuit is the most tangible effort yet to alter or halt his plans for an addition that itself would be nearly twice the size of the White House before the East Wing was torn down.

In 2000, the National Park Service’s Comprehensive Design Plan for the White House first identified the need for a larger event space to address an increase in the number of visitors and provide a suitable venue for major events, according to the administration’s presentation.