President Donald Trump's crusade to give the White House a $300 million ballroom was allowed to proceed on Tuesday, as a federal judge denied an emergency request to halt the posh project.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a Bush-appointed judge, rejected a request from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to stop the renovation, finding that allowing subsurface work to proceed posed merely a minimal risk of permanently damaging the project's opponents, Politico reported. The preservationists had sought a temporary block. The judge agreed to consider a longer preliminary injunction when arguments resume early next year.
The Trump administration must present its plans to the National Capital Planning Commission by the end of December, the judge ordered.
"The court will hold them to that," Leon said at a crowded hearing. "They've got until the end of this month."
The judge made the decision after receiving a classified government submission warning of national security implications of halting work. Historically, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center has occupied space beneath the now-demolished East Wing.
The administration has insisted the project only requires Trump's authorization. However, it came to light this week that National Park Service officials completed an environmental assessment of the project in August and found it didn’t require a more detailed environmental review
National Trust counsel Tad Heuer dismissed that assessment as "woefully inadequate," pointing to significant deviations between approved plans and actual construction. He noted that the East Wing Colonnade was demolished in October, contradicting documentation describing "renovation."
"There are pile-drivers running around the clock," Heuer told the court. "There's ongoing construction. Every day you have more concrete, more footprint."
