Americans got their biggest raises in 40 years. Inflation took most of it.

August 7, 2026 / 9:44 AM EDT / CBS News

The typical American’s paycheck has grown faster since 2019 than in any stretch since the early 1980s. Most of it didn’t stick.

A CBS News analysis of Census data found the typical full-time worker earned $1,250 a week in the first half of 2026. That’s up $342 from the year before the pandemic, a raise of 38%.

But prices climbed nearly as fast. Consumer costs rose 30% over the same seven years, swallowing about 80% of the typical worker’s raise. What survives is roughly $70 more a week to spend in today’s dollars. That’s about 6% over seven years or a gain of less than 1% a year.

Over seven years, $70 more a week is a small gain placed in the context of a typical family’s budget: about one gasoline fill-up for an SUV or less than one-third of a single week’s grocery run for a cost-conscious family of four.

That gap explains a contradiction millions of households felt across the Trump, Biden and second Trump administrations: raises that never seemed to change the household budget.

Inflation peaked in June 2022, when prices jumped 9% over the prior year, the sharpest increase since 1981.

The gains were not evenly shared. Across the occupations CBS News could measure reliably, roughly half of the workers beat inflation, about a quarter came out about even, and the other quarter fell behind – even if their paychecks were rising.

The size and pattern of increases sometimes ran counter to what people might expect. Pay for the lowest-earning tenth of workers rose 9.4% even after the big inflation hit. For the typical worker it was 5.9%. For the best-paid quarter, just 2.6% — the further up the pay scale, the smaller the gain.

Two familiar jobs show how wide the gap got. Registered nurses and police officers both earn about $80,000 a year. Over these seven years, police pay rose nearly 10% after inflation. But nurses’ pay barely moved when rising prices are factored in.

Some of the biggest gains came among traditionally lower-paid occupations.

Nursing and home health aides, childcare workers and waiters all beat inflation by more than 10% in the seven-year period. For waiters, part of that is arithmetic: tips are a percentage of the bill, so when menu prices jumped, tips often rose with them.

Teachers went the other way. Elementary and middle school teachers fell about 5% after considering inflation; high school teachers slightly more.

So did the people delivering our mail. Letter carriers lost about 10% in buying power. In January 2025, they voted down a tentative national contract by more than two to one, their union’s first rejection since 1978, after being offered base wage increases of about 1.3% a year.

A gain that small still counts as unusually good over the long haul. Adjusted for inflation, the typical worker’s pay rose 5.9% from 2019 to 2026, better than most seven-year stretches dating all the way back to 1979. Pay fell 3.6% after inflation in the decade after 1979 and rose just 0.3% across the 1990s.

This week on “Sunday Morning” (Aug. 9)

2026-08-07T10:12:00-0400 / CBS News

By David Morgan

Updated on: August 7, 2026 / 10:15 AM EDT / CBS News

The Emmy Award-winning “CBS News Sunday Morning” is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. “Sunday Morning” also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. (Download it here.)

Guest host: Seth Doane

Autumn Mowery owns and maintains the Ellsworth Candlepin Bowling Alley in Ellsworth, Maine. CBS News

COVER STORY: Rescuing a candlepin bowling alley helps bolster a Maine communityAutumn Mowery was 18 when the candlepin bowling alley in Ellsworth, Me., where she worked, was threatened with the wrecking ball. She took it over, challenging herself to keep the lights on in a pillar of the community – and in so doing Mowery found a way to help others in need of a safe place. Lee Cowan reports.

For more info:

• Ellsworth Candlepin Bowling Alley, Ellsworth, Me.
• GoFundMe: Ellsworth Candlepin Bowling Alley
• Ellsworth Candlepin Bowling Alley (Facebook)
• 207 Collectibles, Ellsworth, Me.

ALMANAC: August 9“Sunday Morning” looks back at historical events on this date.

Venus fly traps, which grow in nutrient-poor areas, compensate for the lack of nitrogen in the soil by getting it from the insects they eat. CBS News

NATURE: Rescuing the Venus fly trapThe carnivorous Venus fly trap is native to the Carolinas, but its population is dwindling due to loss of habitat. Correspondent Seth Doane talks with botanist Julie Moore, who has spent much of her life helping to save these remarkable plants; and with Damon Waitt, director of the North Carolina Botanical Garden, who discusses the unusual traits of a species that Charles Darwin called the most interesting plant in the world. (Originally broadcast April 26, 2026.)

For more info:

• Venus Flytrap Champions
• North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Boiling Spring Lakes, N.C. City Manager Gordon Hargove

Travelers on Interstate 80 in Walcott, Iowa, can park themselves at what is billed as the world’s largest truck stop. CBS News

U.S.: Visiting the Iowa 80 Truckstop, the world’s largestThe Iowa 80 Truckstop, on Interstate 80, claims to be the world’s largest truck stop – and who would argue? Luke Burbank pulls up to the Walcott, Iowa truck stop larger than 150 football fields, catering to those who keep America moving, which features everything from 24-hour restaurants and maintenance shops, to a dentist, ministry office, and movie theater. (Originally broadcast Aug. 31, 2025.)

For more info:

• Iowa 80 Truckstop, Walcott, Iowa

PASSAGE: In memoriam“Sunday Morning” remembers some of the notable figures who left us this week.

U.S.: How THC tests landed more than a thousand new mothers onto child abuse registriesIn more than 40 states, marijuana is now a legal method of relieving pain. But in Idaho, more than a thousand new mothers have ended up on a child abuse registry after testing positive for THC – a chemical found in marijuana – following childbirth. In other states, women have even been sent to jail. The findings of a joint investigation by “CBS Sunday Morning” and the Marshall Project raise hard questions about who gets punished, and who doesn’t. Erin Moriarty reports. This story was produced in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system.

For more info:

• The Marshall Project
• Dr. Richard Hearn, Hearn Law PLC
• Child and Family services, Idaho Dept. of Health and welfare
• Attorney Erin Bailey
• Solicitor Jimmy Richardson, Horry County, S.C.

Actor Tim Curry in the 1970s. Photofest

SUNDAY PROFILE: Tim CurryIn 50 years on screen, Tim Curry, star of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Clue” and “It,” has played roles campy, comical, and menacingly sinister, yet his most inscrutable role is still Tim Curry. The actor talks with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz about his memoir “Vagabond” (which is decidedly not a Hollywood tell-all); the stroke he suffered in 2012, and learning how to speak again; and why he never sought to curry stardom. (Originally broadcast Oct. 19, 2025.)

WATCH AN EXTENDED INTERVIEW: Tim Curry (Video)https://www.cbsnews.com/video/extended-interview-tim-curry/In 2012 actor Tim Curry suffered a stroke, after which he had to relearn how to speak. In this web exclusive, the steadfastly private Curry talks with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz about his memoir “Vagabond,” and his life, career, and medical story.

READ AN EXCERPT: “Vagabond: A Memoir” by Tim Curry

For more info:

• “Vagabond: A Memoir”by Tim Curry (Grand Central), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available October 21 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• timcurry.co.uk

HARTMAN: Dog days

BOOKS: Gay TaleseKelefa Sanneh reports.

For more info:

• Gay Talese (Official site)
• “A Town Without Time: Gay Talese’s New York – The Master Journalist’s Greatest Reporting on the City’s Eccentric Characters from the 1950s to Today” by Gay Talese (Mariner Books Classics), in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• Robert Boynton, journalism professor, New York University

NATURE: TBD

WEB EXCLUSIVES:

MARATHON: Masters in architecture (YouTube Video)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfPMVWNk0_IEnjoy these “Sunday Morning” profiles of some of the leading architects of the 20th and 21st centuries. Featuring:

• Chicago’s towering architectural landmarks
• Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas
• I.M. Pei on designing the JFK Presidential Library
• E. Fay Jones’ chapels in the Arkansas woods
• The soaring simplicity of Mies van der Rohe
• The Glass House of Philip Johnson
• Jean Nouvel, making his mark on the New York skyline
• The modernist works of Zaha Hadid
• Roth’s whimsical, living architecture in the Mexican jungle
• The ornamental architecture of Chicago’s Louis Sullivan
• The legacy of Los Angeles architect Paul R. Williams
• Relocating a Frank Lloyd Wright house across country
• “Parkitecture”: The designs within Grand Canyon National Park by architect Mary Colter
• Moshe Safdie skyscrapers, inspired by (among other things) Lego
• Training a new generation of architects at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West in Arizona
• The pods of Tokyo’s modular Nakagin Tower

MARATHON: All things birds (YouTube Video)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu7IxZ33LU8“CBS Sunday Morning” flies around the U.S., watching fascinating birds and learning about our feathered friends. Featuring:

• Tagging migrating whimbrel shorebirds
• Good news for the protection of migrating birds
• New methods, designs aim to cut down on bird strikes
• Christian Cooper, the “extraordinary birder”
• Student’s unique talent that’s for the birds
• A composer transcribes bird songs
• Merlin Bird ID app works magic
• Art, music and birdsong
• Bird illustrator David Allen Sibley

FROM THE ARCHIVES: “Once” songwriter Glen Hansard (Video)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apUe0KQh0RYIrish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, an Oscar-winner for “Once” (which became a Tony Award-winning musical), died July 29, 2026 at age 56. In this March 17, 2013 “Sunday Morning” profile, Hansard talked with Anthony Mason about growing up as a street performer in Dublin, and his meteoric rise to fame as a member of the rock band The Frames and (with Markéta Irglová) half of the duo The Swell Season. Also: A web extra featuring Hansard busking on the streets of New York City.

Notable Deaths in 2026 50 photos

GALLERY: Notable deaths in 2026A look back at the esteemed personalities who’ve left us this year, who’d touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.

Summer music highlights of 2026 94 photos

GALLERY: Summer music highlights of 2026Summer is the time to enjoy live music, indoors and out. Scroll through our gallery of some of 2026’s leading musical acts, featuring images by CBS News photojournalist Jake Barlow and photographers Ed Spinelli and Kirstine Walton.

Don Lemon tells judge he was a target of Trump before indictment in ask to drop criminal case

2026-08-07T13:42:51.462Z / CNN

By Kara Scannell

Updated 2 hr ago

Updated Aug 7, 2026, 9:59 AM ET

PUBLISHED Aug 7, 2026, 9:42 AM ET

Journalist Don Lemon outside federal court in Los Angeles, on January 30.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Journalist Don Lemon asked a judge to dismiss an indictment tied to his presence at a protest in a Minnesota church earlier this year, arguing the charges violate the First Amendment and are a result of a vindictive prosecution.

“The record could not be more clear that Mr. Lemon has been a persistent target of President Trump’s ire before the events in Minnesota (and) that the Justice Department acted on the President’s animus by filing unprecedented charges against a journalist for doing his job,” Lemon’s lawyers wrote in a motion Friday, citing more than a dozen statements from the president and administration officials.

“The government should not be permitted to use criminal prosecutions to chill journalism disfavored by the President,” his lawyers wrote.

Lemon, a former CNN anchor, was arrested earlier this year and charged with conspiring to violate someone’s constitutional rights and violating the FACE Act, which prohibits the use of force or threats to intentionally interfere with someone expressing their First Amendment right to practice religion. He has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors allege Lemon and another independent journalist were part of a “takeover-style attack” of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Lemon live-streamed anti-ICE protestors rushing into the church on January 18 on his YouTube channel. Lemon has said repeatedly, including during his live-stream, that he was at the church to document the demonstration.

“The law has long recognized that bearing witness is not the same as taking part,” his lawyers wrote.

“Prosecuting journalists for aiding and abetting the crimes they simply cover, on the theory that they failed to prevent those crimes or ‘promoted’ the criminals’ message, would chill large swaths of critical reporting. It would deter the public’s eyes and ears from gathering essential information in real time. It would end much of investigative reporting as we know it,” his lawyers wrote in a motion.

Lemon’s lawyers, led by Abbe Lowell, also argue the charges are legally deficient and should be thrown out on those grounds.

艺术毕业生扎根社会 解决痛点探讨亲情文化

2026-08-07 23:19 / 联合早报

南洋艺术学院毕业生郑清心（左起），以及拉萨尔艺术学院毕业生蔡润熹和李茹丽，星期五（8月7日）在新加坡艺术大学、南艺和拉萨尔联合举办的毕业典礼上获颁各自的学士学位。 （梁麒麟摄）

拉萨尔艺术学院毕业生蔡润熹执导的短片《思慕四幕》(Mimicry)，讲述一名得不到父爱的女生，通过模仿已故父亲生前当乩童做法时的场景，希望更了解父亲。图为蔡润熹展示短片的宣传明信片，她希望通过这部作品探讨关系疏离亲人之间的感情联结。（梁麒麟摄）

李茹丽就读拉萨尔艺术学院社会未来设计课程时，到眼科诊所考察后发现，不少病人未必完全理解医生对眼疾的讲解。她于是从儿童绘本汲取灵感想，设计一系列教材，通过鲜明设计和立体图案，解释复杂的眼科信息。（梁麒麟摄）

好的设计应以人为本，李茹丽在拉萨尔艺术学院社会未来设计课程领略到，要真正实践这个理念，不仅要“为人设计”，更要“与人共同设计”，也就是设计从业者与所服务社群共创方案，一起解决生活中的痛点。

也是新加坡艺术大学首届毕业生的李茹丽（24岁），星期五（8月7日）获新艺大颁发的社会未来设计荣誉学士学位。

李茹丽在理工学院修读通讯设计课程，毕业后从事网络营销，但设计社媒宣传广告很快让她觉得乏味。她总觉得自己的作品“用完即丢”，开始思考如何让设计发挥更持久的作用。

当她得知拉萨尔前年推出社会未来设计课程，立即决定报读。她认同课程倡导跨领域视角，通过设计发挥社会影响力的理念。“那时我觉得自己和社区似乎没有很深的联系，我希望通过课程改变自己并改善他人生活。”

课程让学生参与各种社区项目，让她走出舒适圈。例如，为了帮公共图书馆联系社区，自认华语不流利的她，鞭策自己用华语同年长者交谈，配合他们的喜好策划一场乒乓球友谊赛。

学校医院合作 配合课程设立实验室

拉萨尔也同新加坡国立大学医院合作，配合课程设立“可持续医疗设计实验室”，让学生为医院提出可持续优化方案。李茹丽在医院眼科诊所进行考察和访问，设计深入浅出的教材，协助病人了解眼睛健康知识。

她发现，病人对眼科医生高度信任，但未必理解医生对眼疾或眼科手术的讲解。她于是从儿童绘本汲取灵感，通过鲜明设计和立体图案讲解复杂信息。“课程让我明白，设计从业者与社群直接交流与接触尤其重要，这样才能让设计方案契合人们的需求。”

除了新艺大毕业生，星期五的典礼也为拉萨尔和南洋艺术学院各自与伙伴大学联办课程的毕业生颁发文凭。

同样毕业于拉萨尔的蔡润熹（22岁），获伦敦大学金史密斯学院（Goldsmiths，University of London）颁发电影荣誉学士学位。

热衷探索亲情主题的蔡润熹，有一次从母亲口中得知外公生前是乩童，而母亲也对自己从未真正了解外公而感到遗憾。这个意外发现给予蔡润熹灵感，她与同学通过毕业专题短片《思慕四幕》（Mimicry）探讨亲情、传承与身份认同等主题。

这部结合华语、福建话和英语的短片讲述一名得不到父爱的女生，在父亲离世后发现他曾是一名乩童，于是开始模仿父亲生前起坛作法时神明上身的场景，希望借此更了解和接近父亲。蔡润熹希望通过短片探索关系疏离的亲人之间的感情联结。

她受访时解释，华文片名《思慕四幕》寓意四种普世情感诉求，也就是被看见、被爱、有归属和被理解。

短片也是对本地乩童文化的一份记录。为了准确呈现这个民俗文化，蔡润熹除了考察几座道教庙宇，也咨询了庙宇负责人。“我不希望人们只把乩童文化视为一种奇观，而是借短片探讨乩童的内心世界和挣扎。”

No English content available

Hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico wake up with no running water as rationing begins: “It’s brutal”

August 7, 2026 / 11:19 AM EDT / CBS News

By

Lucia I Suarez Sang Associate Managing Editor
Lucia Suarez Sang is an associate managing editor at CBSNews.com. Previously, Lucia was the director of digital content at FOX61 News in Connecticut and has previously written for outlets including FoxNews.com, Fox News Latino and the Rutland Herald.

Read Full Bio

Hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico’s capital and surrounding communities woke up without running water as a massive rationing measure took effect Friday. It comes amid a severe drought on top of shortages due to infrastructure issues on the island.

“It’s brutal,” San Juan resident Gloriany Baba told CBS News in Spanish. “It’s unbelievable to live through this today.”

Residents were seen filling up jugs and buckets with water ahead of the rationing, which affects more than 180,000 customer accounts — meaning households and businesses — in San Juan and six other municipalities. Customers were divided into two groups that will alternate not having water for at least 48 hours at a time.

Government officials have not said when the rationing will end and have warned the outages could be extended to 72 hours at a time.

Residents collect water from a tanker truck at a distribution point during a government-imposed water rationing amid a severe drought in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Ricardo ARDUENGO /AFP via Getty Images

In San Juan, July was the driest month in more than 120 years and the second hottest on record. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, about 36% of Puerto Rico is facing a severe drought, and another 32% is in a moderate drought.

“It’s not going to take one tropical system. It’s going to take many tropical systems and the winter precipitation for us to get out of this drought crisis,” said Ada Monzon, the chief meteorologist at local station WAPA-TV.

The drought has put even more pressure on a water system already strained by decades of underinvestment, deferred maintenance and aging infrastructure.

Puerto Rico’s water authority says roughly 65% of the water it produces is lost or goes unbilled, much of it through leaks and aging pipes.

The island’s governor, Jenniffer González, has acknowledged years of neglect, but blamed the current problem on the weather.

Communities in San Juan have documented at least 118 days in 2026 with repeated water outages before the rationing measures began. Service has been intermittent and has shut off for full days and multiple days at a time. Residents have also complained about very low pressure.

Low-income Puerto Ricans are spending money on bottled water, and the elderly are relying on neighbors and family to carry water to them.

A resident carries a bucket of water after collecting it from a natural spring during a mandatory water rationing imposed amid a severe drought in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico. Ricardo ARDUENGO /AFP via Getty Images

Puerto Rico previously implemented rationing measures in 2020 and in 2015, when some 400,000 utility customers received water only every third day.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/puerto-ricos-ongoing-water-crisis-leads-to-rationing/

The Odds: The Ballot Battle

9:54 AM EDT, Fri August 7, 2026 / By Ainsley Ehlers, CNN

The Odds: The Ballot Battle

While President Trump claims voters are upset with congressional Republicans and not him, polling reveals the GOP is actually outrunning him on the generic ballot. CNN News Central’s John Berman and Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten look at this split and what prediction markets expect for which party will control the Senate after the midterms.

3:47 • Source: CNN

中国首次证实南中国海自家撞船事件致两海警死亡

2026年8月7日 23:28 / 联合早报

AI摘要

• 中国首次间接证实2025年8月11日南中国海撞船事件致两名海警死亡，两人被追授“中国武警忠诚卫士”称号。
• 事发时中国海警船在黄岩岛附近追击菲巡逻船，与解放军海军“桂林”舰相撞；菲方曾公布视频质疑中方操作危险。
• 学者分析此举意在彰显捍卫海洋权益决心、争取国内舆论支持，并反映中方在主权问题上立场趋硬。

本摘要由AI辅助生成，仅供参考

菲律宾海岸警卫队于8月11日公布的一段视频截图显示，从一艘菲律宾渔业船上可以看到一艘舷号164的中国海军军舰（中），在南中国海争议海域黄岩岛附近与一艘中国海警船（右侧远处）发生相撞后的画面。 （法新社）

中国官方追授四名烈士“中国武警忠诚卫士”称号，资料显示其中两人去年8月11日在海上维权行动中牺牲。这与中国海警船当日在南中国海追逐菲律宾船只期间与本国军舰相撞的时间吻合，意味着中国时隔一年首次间接证实撞船事件造成两名海警人员死亡。

学者分析指出，北京意在强调捍卫海洋权益的决心，争取国内舆论支持，也表示中国在海洋主权声索问题上的立场更趋强硬。

中国“人民武警”微信公众号星期三（8月5日）发布，在第25届“中国武警忠诚卫士”评选中，衣昕玉、苗鉴、程龙和谯禾林四名烈士被追授为“中国武警忠诚卫士”。

中国退役军人事务部主管的“中华英烈网”资料显示，年仅22岁的衣昕玉生前是中国海警局战士，烈士事迹是2025年8月11日“参与南海一线维权行动牺牲”，被追认为中共党员，追记一等功。

程龙的网页信息目前均标注“不详”，显示“正在补充完善中”。据早前截图信息，25岁的程龙生前是中国海警局直属第三局的南域舰执法员，与衣昕玉同日“在海上维权行动中不幸英勇牺牲”，但牺牲地点“不详”，同样追记一等功。

去年8月11日，中国海警3104号“南域”舰在黄岩岛（菲律宾称斯卡伯勒浅滩）附近海域追击菲律宾巡逻船时，与解放军海军052D型导弹驱逐舰“桂林”舰高速相撞。

事后菲律宾公布现场视频，称中国船只危险操作，并怀疑中方有人伤亡；中国则指责菲律宾采取高速冲闯、大角度转向穿越中方舰艏等危险动作，制造复杂紧迫局面，严重危及中方舰艇人员安全，但未提及人员伤亡情况。

中国此次间接证实两名海警死亡的消息，正值中菲围绕南中国海主权争端再度升温。

南京大学国际关系学院院长朱锋告诉《联合早报》，中国政府是向国内发出明确信号，即南中海维权斗争面临复杂而严峻的挑战，“形势上不可低估，行动上也不会妥协，要做好足够的思想、心理准备”。

新加坡尤索夫伊萨东南亚研究院附属资深研究员黎良福受访时也说，北京在强调捍卫海洋权益的决心，“即使付出生命代价也在所不惜”。同时激发民族主义情绪，争取国内舆论支持。

朱锋和南洋理工大学拉惹勒南国际研究院副教授李明江均认为，追授称号是对海警官兵的正面认可，肯定他们为中国利益作出的贡献，起到鼓舞士气的作用。

但李明江分析，此时宣布消息更多是内部程序决定，和中菲目前形势直接关系不大。

他以中印冲突为例，指中国对冲突中的人员伤亡情况披露向来比较低调、滞后，“这和文化有一定关系，也因事故后需要时间做一个全面调查”。

中国和印度2020年6月在加勒万河谷发生严重的边界冲突。印度当时公布至少20名士兵死亡，中国则在时隔八个月后的2021年2月才公布四名官兵阵亡。

美上诉法院裁决：禁特朗普耗4亿美元建造白宫宴会厅

2026年8月7日 23:42 / 联合早报

8月5日，美国华盛顿特区白宫新宴会厅扩建工程在施工。 （彭博社）

美国联邦上诉法院下令，要求总统特朗普总统的政府停止在白宫东翼拆除地块上建造一座耗资4亿美元（5.13亿新元）的宴会厅。此举对这名共和党领导人造成了重大打击，也考验着他的总统权力。

位于华盛顿的哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院星期五（8月7日）以二比一的投票结果，维持了国家历史保护信托基金（National Trust for Historic Preservation）此前赢得的初步禁令。信托基金去年提起诉讼，指控特朗普政府在未获得国会授权的情况下拆除了东翼，并开始建造一座面积达9万平方英尺（8360平方公尺）的宴会厅。

路透社报道，法官在裁决书中写道：“是否应该建造一座大型宴会厅应由国会决定，而非行政部门自行决定。国会并未赋予行政部门不受限制的权力，使其可以随意重新设计、改造和重建白宫——这座人民的殿堂——以满足某位总统的个人意愿。”

上诉法院将裁决暂缓14天执行，以便特朗普政府向美国最高法院提起上诉。白宫和司法部尚未对此置评。此前，美国地区法官理查德·莱昂（Richard Leon）两次叫停了该地块的地上施工，但允许地下工程继续进行，特朗普随后提起上诉。

莱昂是共和党前总统乔治·W·布什任命的法官，他裁定没有任何联邦法规“赋予总统”在未经国会批准的情况下建造宴会厅所需的权力。

特朗普政府称，建造宴会厅对于举办大型正式活动和保障白宫安全至关重要。这是特朗普政府为重塑华盛顿中心地带的政府建筑和国家纪念碑格局而采取的多项举措中最宏大的一项。

在另一起诉讼中，一名法官最近裁决，特朗普的名字非法添加到肯尼迪表演艺术中心的外部，并下令将其移除。

Appeals court says Trump is unlawfully constructing White House ballroom

2026-08-07T14:33:23.440Z / CNN

By Devan Cole

Updated 27 min ago

Updated Aug 7, 2026, 11:24 AM ET

PUBLISHED Aug 7, 2026, 10:33 AM ET

A view of the ongoing construction of a helipad and ballroom at the White House, as seen from the Washington Monument observation deck in Washington, DC, on July 23, 2026.

Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

A divided federal appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump is unlawfully constructing a massive new ballroom at the White House, possibly 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 said it would pause its ruling for two weeks to give Trump time to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The judges who ruled against Trump are Patricia Millett, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, and Brad Garcia, an appointee of former President Joe Biden. Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, dissented.

The majority opinion — spanning more than 100 pages — is the latest stinging judicial rebuke in the legal saga over Trump’s decision to demolish the White House’s East Wing last year to make room for the ballroom.

Earlier this year, a federal trial-level judge in Washington, DC, ordered Trump to stop with all above-ground construction until Congress blessed his plans. But the appeals court permitted him to continue with the project for now while the court considered the case. Friday’s ruling unwinds that earlier decision and makes clear that the entire project requires congressional approval.

Rao said in her dissent that she thought the National Trust did not have the legal right – known as “standing” – to bring the case in the first place, agreeing with arguments pushed by Trump’s lawyers since last year.

She criticized US District Judge Richard Leon, who first ruled against the project last spring, for elevating “the aesthetic displeasure” of the group with the project over Trump’s argument that it’s needed for national security reasons.

“The district court seized supervision of construction at the White House, and my colleagues affirm this judicial overreach,” Rao wrote.

This story is breaking and will be updated.