Back in March<\/a>, Leon \u2014 a George W. Bush appointee, not exactly a card-carrying member of the Resistance \u2014 was already openly skeptical of the administration\u2019s \u201cof course the president can do whatever he wants to the White House\u201d theory.<\/p>\n He called the government\u2019s arguments \u201cbrazen.\u201d He questioned whether demolishing the East Wing could possibly be described as an \u201calteration.\u201d He reminded everyone, repeatedly, that the White House is \u201can iconic symbol of this nation,\u201d not a personal playground.<\/p>\n So when Leon finally ruled, the opinion had a real \u201care you fucking kidding me right now?\u201d vibe. Leon wrote, \u201cno statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have.\u201d And he slapped the president\u2019s attempt at self-aggrandizement, writing, \u201cThe President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!\u201d<\/p>\n Judge Leon went on to swat away the government\u2019s desperado move of claiming a delay in the ballroom project would \u201cimperil national security and expose the White House to damage,\u201d writing that\u2019s just \u201cgrasping for straws.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, this decision might not shield the nation from whatever gold covered monstrosity Trump has in mind for the East Wing. Leon makes it clear that with Congressional approval, the project can move forward. Plus there\u2019s the appellate process, the Department of Justice has already filed its appeal of the ruling.<\/p>\n The post Trump Gets Brutal News Flash: The White House Ain\u2019t Mar-A-Lago<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve been following the slow-motion legal trainwreck that is Donald Trump\u2019s East Wing\u2013turned\u2013ego monument, then yesterday\u2019s preliminary injunction wasn\u2019t a shock.<\/p>\n Because from jump<\/a>, Judge Richard Leon has been all but skywriting his conclusion. The case brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation over the Trump administration\u2019s unilateral demolition of the East Wing of the White House to build a $400 million White House ballroom \u2014 funded privately \u2014 with exactly zero Congressional approval or oversight. And now, after months of increasingly incredulous benchslaps, Leon has finally done the obvious, granting the plaintiff<\/a> a preliminary injunction halting further work on the ballroom project, making crystal clear that (shocker!) presidents do not, in fact, get to freestyle renovations on national landmarks like they\u2019re flipping a condo.<\/p>\n Back in March<\/a>, Leon \u2014 a George W. Bush appointee, not exactly a card-carrying member of the Resistance \u2014 was already openly skeptical of the administration\u2019s \u201cof course the president can do whatever he wants to the White House\u201d theory.<\/p>\n He called the government\u2019s arguments \u201cbrazen.\u201d He questioned whether demolishing the East Wing could possibly be described as an \u201calteration.\u201d He reminded everyone, repeatedly, that the White House is \u201can iconic symbol of this nation,\u201d not a personal playground.<\/p>\n So when Leon finally ruled, the opinion had a real \u201care you fucking kidding me right now?\u201d vibe. Leon wrote, \u201cno statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have.\u201d And he slapped the president\u2019s attempt at self-aggrandizement, writing, \u201cThe President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!\u201d<\/p>\n Judge Leon went on to swat away the government\u2019s desperado move of claiming a delay in the ballroom project would \u201cimperil national security and expose the White House to damage,\u201d writing that\u2019s just \u201cgrasping for straws.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, this decision might not shield the nation from whatever gold covered monstrosity Trump has in mind for the East Wing. Leon makes it clear that with Congressional approval, the project can move forward. Plus there\u2019s the appellate process, the Department of Justice has already filed its appeal of the ruling.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve been following the slow-motion legal trainwreck that is Donald Trump\u2019s East Wing\u2013turned\u2013ego monument, then yesterday\u2019s preliminary injunction wasn\u2019t a shock. Because from jump, Judge Richard Leon has been all but skywriting his conclusion. The case brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation over the Trump administration\u2019s unilateral demolition of the East Wing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":147694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-2sJqoV.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2254793633-300x200.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
\nKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"