A nonprofit group tasked with preserving U.S. historical sites sued President Donald Trump on Friday, seeking to halt construction of his massive White House ballroom until the project receives the proper federal approvals.
“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else,” the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States said in the lawsuit in Washington, D.C., federal court.
“And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in,” the suit said.
The suit argues that Trump was legally required to secure reviews and approvals before demolishing the historic East Wing of the White House and beginning to build the 90,000-square-foot ballroom.
Those reviews “should have taken place before the Defendants demolished the East Wing, and before they began construction of the Ballroom,” the suit says.
