President Donald Trump’s administration told the Supreme Court its controversial White House ballroom project is “65% finished” to argue it’s too late for judges to halt construction.
But newly reviewed budget and internal records suggest that number doesn’t add up, The Washington Post reported.
The claim came from White House official Joshua Fisher in a filing pushing the justices to overturn a lower court ruling that had ordered aboveground construction stopped due to lack of congressional approval. Fisher’s filing also revealed the underground portion of the project includes a security complex built to withstand “bombs, rockets, missiles, even nuclear blasts,” and projected an August 2028 completion date — timing that appears in tension with claims the work is nearly two-thirds complete.
According to the new report, the contract to build the East Wing “stipulates that payments to the contractor be proportional to the amount of work completed, and that work cannot begin until the government approves spending for it. Based on that, if 65 percent of the work has been done, then the government should already have paid 65 percent of the total cost of the project.” But in reality, only 24 percent of the money has been paid out.
Washington Post reporter Dan Diamond, who has covered the project extensively, flagged the discrepancy directly earlier this month, describing the scale of remaining underground and aboveground work still visible at the site.
The ballroom, replacing the East Wing that was demolished last October, has ballooned dramatically from its original pitch. What started as a $200 million, 650-person venue funded by private donors has grown into a roughly $600 million project, with the Post reporting taxpayers are now covering about half the cost — triple the original public estimate. Trump has since said the venue will hold closer to 900 people and feature gold trim throughout the interior, along with a rooftop “drone port.”
The Supreme Court has temporarily allowed construction to continue while it weighs the administration’s request, even as two lower courts have already ruled Trump is pursuing the project unlawfully without congressional authorization. Crews have continued working 20-hour days, seven days a week, racing to make the halted-construction argument increasingly moot regardless of how the justices ultimately rule.
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