Construction crews at the White House are allowed to continue their work on the ballroom project as the appeal effort continues, the Supreme Court order from Chief Justice John Roberts stated on Friday afternoon.
BREAKING: #SCOTUS Order signed by the Chief Justice allows construction on the WH ballroom complex to CONTINUE ... for now. It is not a full adjudication on the merits. It is a pause on the lower court decision that had called for a halt to some of the construction.
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) August 21, 2026
The project is already over halfway completed, and the order pauses previous rulings that said that President Donald Trump needed the blessing on Congress in order for construction to occur, according to NBC 4 Washington.
“Last week, the Administration made two audacious claims in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to greenlight continued aboveground construction of the White House Ballroom,” the National Trust of Historic Preservation’s President and CEO, Brent Leggs, said earlier this week regarding the case.
“First, that no court in the land has the authority to stop them. And second, that because they are using the same indestructible concrete used in nuclear power plants, it would be impossible to remove the Ballroom even if ordered to do so. They are working around the clock in an attempt to outrace judicial review,” Leggs continued.
Lower court decisions permitted construction on the underground military site element of the project, which the president himself has argued is a critical factor in the effort as a whole, according to Courthouse News Service.
“This will be the greatest military complex slash ballroom anywhere in the world,’ Trump said on Wednesday.
On the White House ballroom, which Trump has taken to calling a military complex, the president says on his impromptu tour:
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) August 19, 2026
"This will be the greatest military complex slash ballroom anywhere in the world."