Appeals court says Trump is unlawfully constructing White House ballroom | CNN Politics

A divided federal appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump is unlawfully constructing a massive new ballroom at the White House, teeing up a high-stakes showdown over the issue before the Supreme Court. “Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help,” the DC Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 ruling siding with the nation’s top historic preservation group, which sued over the project last year. “The National Trust has shown, compellingly, that Congress has not ceded unfettered authority to the Executive Branch to dramatically redesign, reshape, and reconstruct the White House – the People’s House – to fit a particular President’s desires,” the court wrote in its unsigned opinion. The DC Circuit, however, paused implementation of its ruling for two weeks to give Trump time to appeal to the Supreme Court, which the president said later Friday he intends to do. “We will be immediately appealing to the United States Supreme Court,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, calling on the nation’s highest court to overturn the decision “in its entirety.” The judges who ruled