WASHINGTON — Attorney General Todd Blanche went on Fox News Sunday to make a legal argument the administration has not yet won in court: that Congress has already given President Trump the authority to build a $900 million ballroom on the White House campus without new legislative approval.
"We don't believe we have to go to Congress. We believe Congress has already given us the authority to do what we're doing," Blanche said during the interview with anchor Shannon Bream. "Many presidents have done a tremendous amount of work to the White House, as they should, and Congress has authorized them to do so."
The problem is that a federal appeals court ruled differently last week. A divided panel found that Congress has not approved the project and ordered the administration to halt all construction by Aug. 21 unless the Supreme Court intervenes. Blanche's Sunday appearance was, in effect, a public appeal for the high court to overrule that order before the deadline.
"We're hopeful that the Supreme Court recognizes that so we can get the ballroom finished as soon as possible," Blanche said. He framed the project not as a luxury renovation but as a national security requirement, arguing the facility would improve the safety of the president, his family, visiting dignitaries and world leaders. "It's also about making sure that the president and his family, guests, world leaders are safe when they're in this city," he added.
Bream, a lawyer, pressed Blanche on the obvious question: if the DOJ genuinely believes Congress has already granted the authority, why not return to Congress and get explicit approval, removing any legal doubt? Blanche did not directly answer. Trump later criticized Bream after the interview aired.
The national security framing has found no support among Democratic lawmakers, who have pushed back hard on both the legal argument and the funding structure. The project draws from a mix of private donations and taxpayer funds — an arrangement Democratic members of Congress called opaque and irregular.
In a letter to Orice Williams Brown, the acting comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office, those lawmakers asked the GAO to audit the project. Their letter cited "the scale of this project, the destruction of historic architecture, the opaque and unorthodox combination of public funds with private funding sources, and the absence of standard federal review processes" as raising "serious concerns about transparency, accountability, and stewardship of this national landmark."
The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress and operates independently of the executive branch. An audit, if initiated, would compel the administration to produce financial records and documentation about how the $900 million is being raised and spent.
The legal fight now rests with the Supreme Court. The administration has until Aug. 21 to either stop construction or secure a stay from the justices. The appeals court ruling came from a divided panel, meaning at least one judge sided with the administration — a fact the DOJ will likely use to argue the legal question is genuinely contested and warrants Supreme Court review.
The $900 million price tag makes this one of the most expensive single construction projects undertaken on the White House campus in modern history. Previous presidents have undertaken significant renovations, but the combination of cost, private fundraising and the absence of a standard congressional appropriations process sets this project apart.
The administration's core legal theory — that existing presidential authority statutes already permit this construction — has not been briefed publicly in full, and no court has accepted it. The appeals court's Aug. 21 deadline gives the Supreme Court roughly three days to act if it chooses to step in.
