The Daily Fuckup

The White House ballroom fight has reached federal court. The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed suit Friday, Dec. 12, 2025, arguing that work on the project should stop until the required review and approval process is completed. The complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief.

In the filing, the trust says the administration tore down the East Wing and began building a 90,000-square-foot ballroom without first clearing the project with Congress, the National Capital Planning Commission, the Commission of Fine Arts or the environmental review process the group says applies. The complaint asks the court to declare the work unlawful and to bar further construction until those steps are done.

The White House had already been defending the project in public. In an October 21, 2025 post, it described the ballroom as a privately funded addition and cast it as part of a long presidential tradition of changes to the White House.

The lawsuit does not resolve the dispute. It puts the question in front of a judge, and as of publication on Dec. 12, 2025, no ruling had been issued.