Donald Trump spoke about his plans after a judge ordered a halt to them (Image: Fox News)
Fox News was halted for a breaking report from the Governor’s Dinner as US President Donald Trump defended his plans to build a £300 million ballroom extension to the White House following a huge blow as a judge ordered construction of the project to be stopped on Tuesday, March 31. Siding with a historic preservation group that argued the effort violated federal law, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said the group is likely to succeed on the merits of its case. He stated: “No statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have.” The injunction temporarily stops work on the project, but enforcement has been delayed for 14 days to allow the White House time to appeal.
The project is said to have been inspired by the upcoming state visit of King Charles, which Trump claimed highlighted the need for a ballroom at the residence. Undeterred by the legal setback, Trump defended the project while speaking at the Governor’s Dinner in the White House. In a breaking live broadcast, he laid out his plans at the end of his speech.
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“You’ve read a lot,” he told the guests. “We’re building a ballroom. For 150 years they’ve wanted a great ballroom here, even a ballroom not a great one. Just give me a room, because this is a very small room,” he said, indicating the room they were currently celebrating in.
“[It] can hold very small numbers of people, and they’ve wanted a great ballroom, and we’re building [it]. “We’re going to build the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world. There’ll be nothing like it.
“And you’re looking right here at the entrance,” he said, pointing ahead of him. “This is a knockout panel, exactly where the gold curtains are, and when that gets opened, there’s a magnificent walkway that goes into what will be the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world.
“So we did this [at] no charge to the taxpayer whatsoever,” he reassured guests. “This was all donations made by friends of mine, people who love our country.
Donald Trump defended his White House Ballroom plans at the Governer’s Dinner (Image: Fox News)
He continued: “[It’s a] very expensive building. Very expensive ballroom. But beautiful. Beautiful in keeping with the White House. An enhancement to the White House. But they’ve needed it for years. When they had a big event – when the President of China comes in, when somebody comes in, of magnitude – they put a tent out on the lawn. If it rained, you were in deep trouble, because the only part of the lawn where they could do it was a very low section.
“So it would be a little embarrassing when you’re sitting down with the King of Saudi Arabia, and he’s sitting in a puddle with four inches of water over issues. It was not exactly good,” he said.
“But so important to say, because nobody ever reports it…not one penny of tax will be donated to this,” he added, “and it’s going to be something that I think the country will be very proud of, [not just] when it opens, but for hundreds, hopefully hundreds and hundreds of years.”
The lawsuit opposing the ballroom was brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which argued the project required congressional authorisation before moving forward. Trump has previously blasted it in a post on Truth Social, calling the National Trust for Historic Preservation a “Radical Left Group of Lunatics” and defending the ballroom project as “under budget” and “being built at no cost to the taxpayer.”
