Trump Asks Supreme Court to OK Ballroom Project

Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey

Happy Friday! Since we did not win last night's $1.04 billion Powerball jackpot, here's what we were watching today.

Trump Asks Supreme Court to OK Ballroom Project

The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow construction of President Trump's White House ballroom to continue, arguing that it was too late to stop work on the project and that doing so would raise national security concerns.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in a court filing that the project, including the ballroom and military and medical facilities beneath it, is now 65% complete, "with millions of pounds of steel procured, tens of thousands of cubic yards of concrete poured, and miles of conduit laid."

Sauer said a crew of 250 has been working 20 hours a day, seven days a week. He also said the project is "on time and under budget," and requires no taxpayer funds, with $400 million in private donations covering the costs. Some estimates, however, indicate that the cost will be considerably higher, upwards of $600 million, and that taxpayers will be required to cover much of the tab.

Whatever the ultimate cost, the Trump administration argues that the project has long since crossed the point where courts could intervene and major changes could be made. Sauer's filing also warns that stopping work at this point would compromise the integrity of the construction that has been completed so far, leaving it vulnerable to weather damage and creating safety and security risks.

The Trump administration's legal argument for the project has shifted in recent months to focus more on the military complex, medical facilities and security features being built rather than the glitzy 90-square-foot ballroom that the president has long insisted is desperately needed for state functions.

"The entire ballroom structure is designed to shield the military installation beneath it," Sauer also writes. "Halting the Project will stall this vital construction, making this President-the subject of recurrent assassination attempts-much less safe, and risking future Presidents' safety."

Sauer's emergency request seeks to have the Supreme Court step in and stay a lower court order that said Trump needed approval from Congress for the ballroom project. It marks the first time that one of Trump's controversial construction projects has come before a Supreme Court that has taken an expansive view of presidential power in other cases.

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled last Friday that the administration must halt above-ground work on the site but could continue with security-related construction. "Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help," the appeals court said in a split decision by a three-judge panel that upheld an April decision by a district court. The appeals court paused its ruling for two weeks to allow the government to take the case to the Supreme Court.

That ruling said that Congress has not ceded its authority over the design and construction of the White House. It said that every president "is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House and its Executive Residence" and that the president has no constitutional authority over the property, "which is designed and maintained for the use of all Presidents, current and future, and for the American people."

The Trump administration filing challenges that framing. "The President of the United States of America is not a tenant, but rather the sole, elected head of the Executive Branch, and Congress has authorized him to renovate, secure, and protect the White House and its grounds, as other Presidents have been allowed to do, without exception," it says. "The injunction is 'judicial overreach beyond the proper province of the federal courts.'"

New design detail: The administration's filing also includes new renderings of the ballroom that depict large, golden presidential seals on the façade of the building. Those design details clash with the traditional look of the White House and reportedly could require the project to get approval from agencies overseeing federal buildings.

What's next: The nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation, which filed the legal challenge to the ballroom project, now has until Tuesday to respond to the government's petition. Work on the project is scheduled to stop on August 21 unless the Supreme Court intervenes.

Consumer Mood Sours in August

The bimonthly University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment found that the public's view of the economy soured in early August. Consumer sentiment dropped 8% in the first days of the month, dropping from 55.2 to 51.0.

"Although the early-month weakening in sentiment was pervasive across various demographic groups, notably large reductions were seen among older consumers, lower-income consumers, and those without a college degree," said Joanne Hsu, director of the survey.

The decline was seen across the political spectrum, as well, though it was most pronounced among Republicans. Sentiment among Republicans is 19% below the level recorded just before the start of the war with Iran, and at the lowest point since the 2024 election.

Social Security Turns 91

A happy 91st birthday to Social Security! President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law on this date in 1935.

This year, the program will provide more than $1.6 trillion in payments to more than 70 million beneficiaries, making it the largest item in the federal budget, accounting for more than a fifth of U.S. government spending.

The program's main trust fund faces insolvency in 2032, meaning that benefits could be cut by 22% unless Congress acts.

"The best birthday gift we could give Social Security is a solvency package, so Social Security's 70 million beneficiaries and 237 million contributors know they'll be able to count on benefits, going forward," Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a statement.

Quote of the Day

"After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States."

  • President Trump, in a Friday speech at a police academy on Long Island, New York, again escalating his rhetoric about the Iran war. Trump has made a series of bold, sometimes bewildering and often false claims about the status of the war, which is nearing the six-month mark with little sign of a lasting peace deal.

Trump on Friday also said that Americans who have to pay "a tiny little bit more" for gas are doing so to keep a "very evil country" and the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world from having a nuclear weapon. "When you have to pay a little bit more, you're at $4, it's OK, I mean, it's not. I'll never apologize. I did the right thing," he said.

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