Ibid.

cartoons about power — sources cited

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Stayed pending appeal.

Self-Help

August 7, 2026 · Ibid.

Floodlit night construction at the demolished White House East Wing: concrete mixer trucks queue in, crews rake a fresh roof pour, a chalked plywood board reads 13 DAYS LEFT, a thick court opinion labelled 136 PAGES is zip-tied to the security fence, and a shouting foreman stands beside Trump in a spotless white hard hat.

A D.C. Circuit panel ruled 2-1 that above-ground work on President Trump's White House ballroom cannot continue without congressional approval. The 136-page opinion said whether a massive ballroom should be built "is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help," but the panel stayed its own order for two weeks to allow a Supreme Court appeal. The roughly 90,000-square-foot project, estimated at $200 million, could cost at least $600 million per contractor invoices reported by the Washington Post; the suit was brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.