Donald Trump and his family could be put in serious danger if work on the $400 million White House ballroom is stopped, his administration has suggested.
A district judge in Washington DC provoked the president’s ire last week when he paused construction on the lavish extension.
White House lawyers are now urging a federal appeals court to halt that ruling and allow builders to get back on site.
In a motion filed on Friday, they argued the judge’s order is ‘threatening grave national-security harms to the White House, the president and his family, and the president’s staff’.
That is because materials are being installed to make the site ‘heavily fortified’, they said, with the ballroom project also including a bomb shelter and military installations according to the Guardian.
The side of the mansion has also been left ‘open and exposed’, the lawyers warned, following President Trump’s decision to go ahead with the demolition of the historic East Wing without consultation.
Elsewhere in the motion, the lawyers argued the district court did not have authority to tackle the suit, saying it ‘rests on a single pedestrian’s subjective architectural feelings’.
The Guardian reported that the decision from Judge Leon – who was nominated by George W Bush – addressed national security, and he exempted construction necessary for the security of the building from his order.
The president ‘has complete authority to renovate the White House’, the motion adds.
Leon’s decision came as a result of a preliminary injunction from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which asked for construction to be paused amid their lawsuit alleging Trump exceeded his authority with the project.
In a Truth Social post after the ruling, Trump described the organisation as a ‘Radical Left Group of Lunatics’.
The creation of the ballroom is one aspect of the president’s ambition to reshape the heart of the US capital within his final term in office.
Other plans in the works include a 250-foot triumphal arch, while he has already unilaterally inserted his name into the title of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
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