Lawyers representing Attorney General Pam Bondi argued in court this week that the ballroom project initiated by President Donald Trump must advance due to unspecified national security reasons.

Recently, the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit against the president and various government bodies, claiming they bypassed legally required procedures by moving forward with the demolition of the East Wing.

This non-profit organization, officially recognized by Congress for its role in preserving historic sites, has requested a court order to immediately halt the project, urging that proper evaluations be conducted first.

Judge Richard J. Leon, appointed by former President George W. Bush, refrained from stopping the project outright. Instead, he instructed the administration to submit the ballroom plans to the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts by the year’s end.

Documents submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as part of the legal proceedings disclosed that the decision to demolish the East Wing was finalized by August.

In late July, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced plans to ‘modernize’ the East Wing, which has traditionally housed the offices of the first ladies.

Trump, himself, gave the plan away when he hosted ballroom donors in the East Room on October 15, days before the demolition started. 

‘Over the next few days, it’s going to be demolished. Everything out there is coming down and we’re replacing it with one of the most beautiful ballrooms we’ve ever seen,’ Trump told the crowd, opening the East Room’s golden curtains so the East Wing and East Colonnade were displayed. 

President Donald Trump motioned to the ballroom construction project after disembarking Marine One on Wednesday. On Tuesday night, he called the court battle a win, as a judge had yet to side with historic preservationists 

A judge didn’t immediately grant the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s wish to have construction halted on the ballroom project, but gave the Trump administration until the end of the year to submit the ballroom’s plans to the appropriate oversight groups

By October 20, wrecking crews had started crashing through the East Wing’s facade. 

‘This case is not about the need for a ballroom,’ the Trust’s attorney, Ted Heuer, argued in court, according to the Washington Post. 

Instead, he said, it was about skipping over decades of legal precedent related to federal construction projects. 

Adam Gustafson, the DOJ’s attorney, argued, ‘there is nothing left for this court to do,’ with the East Wing’s plot already wiped clean. 

The Justice Department lawyers claimed that the White House was a special case and exempt from federal laws that oversaw federal construction.

In court filings, the Trump administration also argued that months of underground construction needed to proceed to replace security infrastructure, and the president could be left vulnerable if the work didn’t continue. 

The presidential bunker, which dated back to the World War II era, was located underneath the East Wing. 

Gustafson did not further elaborate on the national security threat, but Trump officials told Leon he could be briefed in private, the Post said. 

An image from October 20, 2025 shows construction crews ripping through the White House’s East Wing. Days before, President Donald Trump divulged that the whole East Wing would come down to make way for his long-desired ballroom

Crews are photographed on October 28, 2025 demolishing the last portion of the East Wing, the East Colonade that had housed the White House’s movie theater. The booksellers’ hallway, where state dinner guests arrived, was the last remnant of the East Wing standing 

The court case has also revealed several key dates for the project. 

Above-ground work isn’t expected to start until April 2026 and the project is supposed to be completed sometime during the summer of 2028, Trump’s last full year in office.

It also exposed that the project went through an expedited environmental assessment conducted by the National Park Service in August, which found the ballroom would ‘dominate the eastern portion of the site, creating a visual imbalance with the more modestly scaled West Wing and Executive Mansion,’ the Post reported. 

Still, the NPS concluded building the ballroom would have ‘no significant impact’ on the surrounding environment and that no further review would be needed. 

Trump has switched architects for the project, and plans haven’t been completed yet, though court filings say that the 90,000-square-foot addition could reach 55 feet high. 

The tallest the White House reaches is 70 feet on the south side, where the ground floor is more exposed, with the doors opening to the sloping South Lawn. 

In court on Tuesday, Leon suggested he was open to the argument that the underground work was distinct from the construction of the ballroom. 

‘The size of the ballroom is still an open question?’ Leon asked Gustafson, according to the Post. 

An excavator can be seen taking debris from the East Wing away on October 24. Court documents revealed that the East Wing’s demolition was a planned part of the project in August 

The demolition of the East Wing can be seen from the White House’s North Portico on October 23 

The current version of the East Wing was built in 1942 during the administration of FDR, with a second floor to be used for the offices of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. FDR is photographed laying the cornerstone of what had been the East Wing

The DOJ attorney assured the judge that the blueprints weren’t fully baked.

‘There’s nothing final about this building,’ Gustafson replied. 

On Tuesday night, during a Hanukkah reception, Trump took the judge’s initial decision – not to immediately halt the project – as a win. 

‘We won the case. They asked for a restraining order to stop us from building a magnificent ballroom,’ Trump said. ‘And I thank the judge in the case for the courage in making the proper decision, because we didn’t want to be held up,’ he later said.

Trump also said the ballroom would cost $400 million – the highest quote yet – which he has said would come from private donors.