The National Capital Planning Commission had previously delayed the vote after thousands of negative public comments
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
The National Capital Planning Commission will meet this afternoon to decide on Donald Trump’s White House $400m ballroom project, after a federal judge halted construction earlier this week.
Although the order did not take place with immediate effect, judge Richard Leon’s injunction prompted the president to claim, in a Truth Social post, that his administration did not in fact require “express authorization from Congress” to proceed. The government is appealing against the decision.
Trump’s fellow Republicans have up until now not felt the need to weigh in on the project, Politico reported. One exception was Lexi Hamel, a spokesperson for representative Mike Simpson, who said in a statement on Wednesday the Idaho Republican “believes the ruling is stupid” and that “nobody raised hell when Roosevelt or Truman renovated the White House (at taxpayer expense).”
