Architect Shalom Baranes shows a site plan for a new $400 million White House ballroom during a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission in Washington on Jan. 8, 2026. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
A federal judge ordered on April 16 that construction of the White House ballroom be limited to underground.
In a 10-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote that “below-ground construction” for national security facilities and to protect the president and the White House may continue, while “above-ground construction of the planned ballroom” must be stopped.
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