A U.S. appeals court has allowed the Trump administration to continue construction of a $400 million White House ballroom at the site of the former East Wing for the time being.The three-judge panel in Washington, D.C. granted a temporary stay of a lower court order that had paused most above-ground work following a lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.The group had challenged President Donald Trump’s authority to demolish the East Wing and proceed without congressional approval.U.S. District Judge Richard Leon had initially blocked construction in March, citing the lack of congressional authorization.He later permitted limited underground work tied to national security, provided it did not determine the final scale of the ballroom.The Trump administration argued that halting construction posed “grave national-security harms” to the White House, the president, and staff.In granting the stay, the appeals court said the move was intended to give judges time to review the administration’s emergency appeal.The court emphasized that the decision does not amount to a final ruling on the merits of the case.The next hearing is scheduled for June 5th. NEW: An appeals court has ONCE AGAIN overturned an activist judge’s order which BLOCKED the construction of President Trump’s ballroomThis is the SECOND TIME an appeals court has stepped in for this SINGLE CASESTART IMPEACHING ROGUE JUDGES! pic.twitter.com/MllteeoHyI— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) April 18, 2026The latest ruling follows days of legal back-and-forth over the project, with a lower court initially halting most construction before allowing limited underground work tied to security.Just last week, Trump was cleared to continue the project before another activist judge stepped in.However, that was blocked again on Thursday.BREAKING: Federal Judge LIMITS Construction on President Trump’s Privately-Funded White House Ballroom – Trump Responds/*! This file is auto-generated */!function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i