{"id":21822,"date":"2026-04-28T18:42:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/21822\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T18:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:42:20","slug":"adopting-trumps-voice-justice-dept-asks-judge-to-let-ballroom-proceed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/21822\/","title":{"rendered":"Adopting Trump\u2019s Voice, Justice Dept. Asks Judge to Let Ballroom Proceed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Justice Department filed a remarkable motion<\/a> late Monday, written in President Trump\u2019s recognizable online voice, explicitly linking the security breach at the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner to the lawsuit over the president\u2019s ballroom project.<\/p>\n

The motion, signed by the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, and submitted by Stanley Woodward Jr<\/a>., attacks the litigation against the ballroom the same way Mr. Trump has on social media. It asks Judge Richard J. Leon to backtrack and allow construction on the project to continue.<\/p>\n

A court of appeals has already paused<\/a> Judge Leon\u2019s earlier ruling<\/a> until arguments in June. But the Justice Department\u2019s latest motion makes an attempt to sway the litigation in the meantime, while taking the opportunity to flatter the president in dramatic terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it is DONALD J. TRUMP, a highly successful real estate developer, who has abilities that others don\u2019t, especially those who assume the Office of President, this frivolous and meritless lawsuit was filed,\u201d the filing states. \u201cAgain, it\u2019s called TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.\u201d<\/p>\n

The style of the motion leaves no doubt about the president\u2019s significant influence over the decisions of the Justice Department. While parts of the motion are written in a traditional legal style, many sections are indistinguishable from the president\u2019s combative posts on Truth Social.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018The National Trust for Historic Preservation\u2019 is a beautiful name, but even their name is FAKE because when they add the words \u2018in the United States\u2019 to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it makes it sound like a Governmental Agency, which it is not,\u201d the motion begins.<\/p>\n

In the motion, the Trump administration asked that Judge Leon issue an indicative ruling \u2014 a nonbinding opinion signaling how he would approach the question if the case were returned to him. Such a ruling could inform the appeals court ahead of its decision but would not immediately dissolve the earlier injunction or otherwise end the case.<\/p>\n

There was little indication that Judge Leon would do so, after repeatedly rebuffing government lawyers in court over claims that he could not intervene in matters involving national security.<\/p>\n

Since the attempted attack at the dinner<\/a> on Saturday, Mr. Trump and his allies have begun ramping up their push to dismiss the lawsuit filed by historic preservationists against the ballroom, which Mr. Trump has attempted to build without the approval of Congress. The lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation was filed after Mr. Trump abruptly tore down the White House\u2019s historic East Wing without seeking approval from any oversight body.<\/p>\n

Shortly after a gunman was arrested rushing toward guests at the Washington Hilton, Mr. Blanche wrote a letter to the historic preservationists<\/a>, demanding they drop the suit and accusing them of putting Mr. Trump\u2019s life at \u201cgrave risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Trust has declined to voluntarily drop the case, despite pressure by a constellation of conservative voices online.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the Justice Department on Sunday, Gregory Craig, a lawyer representing the National Trust, rejected calls to dismiss the suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Saturday\u2019s awful event does not change is that the Constitution and multiple federal statutes require Congress to authorize construction of a ballroom on White House grounds, and that Congress has not done so,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n

Even if pushed through at an accelerated timeline, the planned ballroom would not be ready for use until near the end of Mr. Trump\u2019s term.<\/p>\n

Congressional Republicans have also ramped up their efforts since the breach to push for funding for Mr. Trump\u2019s ballroom<\/a>, which the president said previously would be funded completely through donations from wealthy businesses and individuals.<\/p>\n

Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican and chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said on Monday that he wanted Congress to move legislation as quickly as possible to provide $400 million for construction of a secure White House ballroom that would also house national security facilities beneath it.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPrivate donations can be used, but I think they should be used for buying china and stuff like that,\u201d Mr. Graham said.<\/p>\n

The senator said Mr. Trump constantly brings up the ballroom to him \u201call the time,\u201d even in unrelated conversations about golf or how he\u2019s feeling.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, \u2018How you doing?\u2019 \u2018Where\u2019s the ballroom?\u2019 \u2018How you playing?\u2019 \u2018I don\u2019t know. I\u2019d play better if you built the ballroom,\u2019\u201d Mr. Graham said of his conversations with the president. \u201cIt\u2019s all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Justice Department filed a remarkable motion late Monday, written in President Trump\u2019s recognizable online voice, explicitly linking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12338,13272,11429,6238,8,1505,13276,13273,9,13277,13275,12339,7,1071,11259,13271,13274],"class_list":{"0":"post-21822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-blanche","9":"tag-building-construction","10":"tag-dc","11":"tag-donald-j","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-justice-department","14":"tag-leon","15":"tag-national-trust-for-historic-preservation","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-richard-j","18":"tag-stanley-jr-attorney","19":"tag-todd-attorney","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-trump","22":"tag-united-states-politics-and-government","23":"tag-white-house-building-washington","24":"tag-woodward"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116483807182325309","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}