2026-08-21T18:12:32.197Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/21/politics/supreme-court-rules-on-trump-ballroom
美国最高法院已临时允许总统唐纳德·特朗普继续推进白宫一处大型新宴会厅的建造工程，暂停了一项原本要求工程于周五午夜停工的法院裁决。
周五下午发布的这项命令并未涉及该项目的合法性，另外两家法院已认定特朗普的该项目属非法推进，因为国会并未批准该工程。相反，这项命令旨在为大法官们留出更多时间，考虑特朗普提出的无限期暂停不利裁决的请求。
根据特朗普政府提交给最高法院的一份文件，工程进展迅速，250名工人每周7天、每天工作20小时。政府称整个宴会厅综合体“整体完成度已达65%”。
负责处理来自哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院的紧急案件的首席大法官约翰·罗伯茨发布了这项命令，并未设定新的截止日期，这意味着白宫的建造工程可以继续进行，直到最高法院发布另一项命令。
由于这是仅由罗伯茨处理的行政暂停令，并未附上推理过程、投票结果或反对意见。罗伯茨必然会将此案提交给全部九名大法官审议。
自去年重返白宫以来，曾做过数十年房地产开发商的特朗普一直试图按照个人喜好改造华盛顿特区的多处场所。宴会厅项目是这项改造计划中最具实质性的部分，去年他拆除了前白宫东翼以腾出空间建造活动场地，此举引发了两党议员的担忧。
“这将是全球首屈一指的军事综合体兼宴会厅，再也找不到能与之媲美的建筑，”特朗普今年8月在谈论该项目时说道。
据熟悉特朗普想法的消息人士透露，总统将宴会厅及其他建筑工程视为其执政遗产的基础，他近期还暗示反对这项工程的人“对我国非常不忠”。
美国全国历史保护信托基金是美国顶尖的历史保护机构，该基金于去年12月就该项目提起诉讼，随后说服华盛顿特区的一名联邦法官下令特朗普停止宴会厅施工，直到国会授予其推进该项目的权限。
法官理查德·里昂允许工人继续在计划中的宴会厅下方建造高度复杂的地下掩体，理由是特朗普当时辩称这两个空间彼此独立。
但随着时间推移，特朗普和高级官员越来越多地表示，整个建筑结构出于国家安全原因都是必要的，他们援引了近年来针对总统的未遂刺杀事件。特朗普曾试图让哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院撤销里昂的裁决，但未获成功。但在8月初，该上诉法院以分歧裁决支持了法官的原判，要求工程自8月21日起停工。
“是否建造大型宴会厅应由国会决定，而非行政部门自行其是，”哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院在2比1的裁决中写道。
“全国历史保护信托基金令人信服地证明，国会并未将不受限制的权力让渡给行政部门，让其大幅改造、重塑和重建白宫——这座‘人民的房子’——以迎合特定总统的个人意愿，”上诉法院总结道。
几天后，特朗普请求最高法院介入此案。副检察长D.约翰·佐尔告诉大法官们，宴会厅之所以必要，是因为此前针对总统的威胁、国家安全需求以及建筑价值。
“美利坚合众国总统并非租客，而是行政部门唯一的民选首脑，国会已授权他翻新、保卫和保护白宫及其场地，正如其他历届总统所获允许的那样，毫无例外，”佐尔写道，随后将里昂的裁决描述为“司法越权”。
关于原告资格的争议
政府在本案中的主要论点之一是，信托基金首先缺乏起诉的法律权利，即所谓的“原告资格”。下级法院表示，信托基金具备原告资格，因为其成员之一、建筑历史学家艾莉森·霍格兰已证明，她作为游客游览白宫的体验正因这座新宴会厅而受到损害。
“那个女人说她沿着步道走了一圈，不喜欢眼前的景色，尽管什么都还没建起来，”特朗普本周在谈论此案时说道，“这个女人完全没有原告资格。”
在请求大法官介入这场纠纷时，政府披露了近几个月来工程的进展情况。提交给法院的文件显示，数百名工人正“每天20小时、每周7天赶工，以确保项目超前于进度且控制在预算内”，工程进度已过半。
佐尔表示，目前使用的建筑材料包括一种同样用于核电站的混凝土，几乎无法拆除。
信托基金的律师抓住了这一点，敦促最高法院驳回特朗普的请求。他们表示，政府正通过加速推进一项最终可能无法逆转的工程，来“规避司法审查”。
信托基金在法庭文件中告诉大法官们，如果做出有利于总统的裁决，将对保护主义者造成法院在审理紧急纠纷时通常会予以同情的那种不可弥补的损害。
“地区法院精心制定的禁令并未阻止他们继续建造掩体、加固东翼场地，或确保总统、其家人及工作人员的安全，”信托基金的律师写道，“该禁令仅禁止在未获得国会事先批准的情况下建造宴会厅。请愿者并未——也无法——证明暂时无法建造该宴会厅就需要紧急救济。”
PolitiFact近期的一项审查发现，2026年，总统在公开演讲中花大量时间谈论这些工程——除了对伊朗的战争之外，这是他谈论最多的话题。
随着法律斗争愈演愈烈，宴会厅的造价也在稳步攀升。政府最初估算造价为2亿美元。特朗普去年秋天表示，造价“约3亿美元”。本月他则称，“几乎已经花了4亿美元”。
《华盛顿邮报》获得的内部合同和文件显示，特朗普对白宫建筑群的改造（包括玫瑰花园、直升机停机坪及其他项目）总成本约为9亿美元。
本文已更新补充更多细节。
Supreme Court temporarily allows construction of White House ballroom to continue
2026-08-21T18:12:32.197Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/21/politics/supreme-court-rules-on-trump-ballroom
The Supreme Court has temporarily allowed President Donald Trump to continue working on a massive new ballroom at the White House, freezing a court ruling that would have required construction to stop at midnight Friday.
Friday afternoon’s order doesn’t address the legality of the project, which two other courts have said Trump is pursuing unlawfully because Congress hasn’t approved it. Instead, it’s meant to give the justices additional time to consider Trump’s request that the adverse rulings be paused indefinitely.
Construction has been progressing rapidly, with a 250-person crew working 20-hour days, 7 days per week, according to a filing submitted by the Trump administration to the Supreme Court. The government put the ballroom complex at “65% complete in its entirety.”
The order from Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency cases rising from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, did not set a new deadline, meaning the construciton can continue at the White House until the Supreme Court issues another order.
Because it’s an administrative stay handled solely by Roberts, there was no reasoning, vote count or dissent. Roberts is certain to refer to the case to all nine justices.
Since returning to office last year, Trump, who spent decades as a real estate developer, has sought to remake various parts of Washington to suit his personal tastes. The ballroom project has been the most substantial part of that effort, with his destruction of the former White House East Wing last year to make room for the event space causing consternation on both sides of the aisle.
“This will be the greatest military complex slash ballroom anywhere in the world. There won’t be anything like it,” Trump said in August as he discussed the project.
The president views the ballroom and other construction projects as the foundation of his legacy, according to sources familiar with his thinking, and recently suggested that those who oppose the effort are “very disloyal to our country.”
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the nation’s top historic preservation group, sued over the project in December and later convinced a federal judge in DC to order Trump to stop with work on the ballroom until Congress gives him authority to move forward.
The judge, Richard Leon, permitted workers to continue building a highly sophisticated bunker beneath the planned ballroom, citing Trump’s argument at the time that the two spaces were distinct from one another.
But as time went on, Trump and top officials have increasingly said that the entire structure was needed for national security reasons, citing attempts that have been made on the president’s life in recent years. Trump tried, unsuccessfully, to get the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to undo Leon’s ruling. But in early August, the court agreed with the judge in a divided ruling that required work to cease starting August 21.
“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 said in its 2-1 ruling.
“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 appeals court concluded.
Days later, Trump asked the Supreme Court to intervene. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that the ballroom was necessary because of earlier threats to the president’s life, national security needs and architectural values.
“The President of the United States of America is not a tenant, but rather the sole, elected head of the Executive Branch, and Congress has authorized him to renovate, secure, and protect the White House and its grounds, as other Presidents have been allowed to do, without exception,” Sauer wrote, going on to describe Leon’s ruling as “judicial overreach.”
Debate over standing
One of the government’s principal arguments in the case is that the Trust lacks the legal right – known as “standing” – to sue in the first place. Lower courts have said that the Trust has standing because one of its members, Alison Hoagland, has shown that her enjoyment of the White House as an architectural historian is being harmed by the new ballroom.
“The person said she walked along and she didn’t like the view, even though nothing was built,” Trump said this week as he discussed the case. “The woman has absolutely no standing.”
In asking the justices to step into the dispute, the administration revealed how much construction had progressed in recent months. Filings submitted to the court said hundreds of workers were spending “20 hours a day, 7 days a week to keep the project ahead of schedule and under budget,” and that it was already more than halfway done.
Sauer said that among the building materials being used is a type of concrete that is also used at nuclear power plants and nearly impossible to deconstruct.
Lawyers for the Trust seized on that point as they urged the Supreme Court to reject Trump’s request. They said the administration was trying to “outrun judicial review” by speeding ahead with a project that may, eventually, be irreversible.
A decision favorable to the president, the Trust told the justices in court papers, would cause the preservationists the type of irreparable harm courts weighing emergency disputes are typically sympathetic to.
“Nothing in the district court’s carefully tailored injunction prevents them from continuing work on the bunker, securing the East Wing site, or ensuring the safety of the President, his family, and staff,” the Trust’s lawyers wrote. “All the injunction stops is construction of a ballroom without prior congressional approval. Petitioners have not – and cannot – show that being temporarily unable to build that ballroom demands emergency relief.”
A recent review from PolitiFact found that in 2026, the president has spent significant time talking about those projects during public remarks — more than any other topic, with the exception of his war with Iran.
And as the legal fight has intensified, the price tag of the ballroom has steadily increased. The administration initially put the cost at $200 million. Trump said in the fall it would cost “about $300 million.” This month, he said that “$400 million almost” had already been spent.
The Washington Post obtained internal contracts and documents setting the cost of Trump’s changes to the White House complex, including the Rose Garden, a helipad, and other projects, at roughly $900 million.
This story has been updated with additional details.