BS BULLETIN
- Trump is escalating his attack on the National Trust for Historic Preservation after an appeals court halted work on his White House ballroom project pending congressional authorization.
- Trump now accuses the Trust of exposing “Top Military Secrets,” including publicly identifying what he says is a rooftop “DronePort.”
- The ballroom fight has become much bigger than architecture: Trump argues the structure is an integrated national-security facility; opponents say the administration bypassed required legal review.
President Donald Trump has been angry about the court battle threatening his White House ballroom.
Friday night, he went thermonuclear.
In an extraordinarily lengthy Truth Social post, Trump accused the National Trust for Historic Preservation — the nonprofit challenging the project in court — of exposing sensitive military information and branded those behind the lawsuit: “TREASONISTS.”
The president’s blast comes after a federal appeals court ordered construction halted, concluding the administration could not continue the project without congressional authorization.
But Trump says the public argument over a “ballroom” is missing something far more consequential.
According to the president, the structure is not merely a fancy new room for state dinners and White House receptions.
He says it is part of a tightly integrated national-security complex intended to protect presidents, their families, senior officials and White House personnel.
And Trump is accusing the organization that sued him of revealing classified details after military and Secret Service officials specifically warned against litigation.
Here is Trump’s complete statement:
“These are the TREASONISTS that brought the suit against the Military Complex. They revealed Top Military Secrets!
“‘The National Trust for Historic Preservation’ is a beautiful name, but even their name is fake because when they add the words ‘in the United States’ to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it makes it sound like a Governmental Agency, which it is not. In fact, the United States refused to continue funding it in 2005 because they strongly disagreed with their mission and objectives. They are very bad for our Country. They stop many projects that are worthy, and hurt many others.
“In this case, they are trying to stop one that is vital to our National Security, and the Safety of all Presidents of the United States, both current and future, their families, staff, and Cabinet members. They were asked by the United States Military not to bring this suit because of the Top Secret nature of the important facility being built.
“They were shown detailed plans and specifications of this knitted, unified, and cohesive structure by Top Officers and Leaders in both the Military and Secret Service. But this did not deter them because they suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS, as noted by Democrat Senator John Fetterman, of Pennsylvania. The lower section does not work without the upper section and, likewise, the upper section does not work without the lower. It is all one highly integrated unit.
“The then President of the National Trust, who brought the case, Carol Quillen, had no background in Historic Preservation, and has been replaced, unanimously, effective immediately. This is similar to her departure from Davidson College, where she was, likewise, dismissed, but the people of our Country are forced to live on with her bad decision, especially that of revealing to everyone, including our enemies throughout the World, the Top Secret Military features of the Building that are already built, and/or under construction, such as the DronePort, which occupies the entire roof.
“There is absolutely no argument that a woman walking her dog in the vicinity of the White House has STANDING to stop such a desperately needed National Security structure for the people of the United States of America, as it will provide Presidents, current and future, a secure space to do their jobs, especially when she never saw the Building, because it had not risen, and she had no rendering, or pictures of the Building because they, also, were in the formative stages of production.
“This woman is not a ‘walker,’ she is an activist, or serial plaintiff, who is involved in much other frivolous litigation throughout the City. In fact, whenever the National Trust files a lawsuit, she seems to be involved. So, she walked at the site of the White House, where there was no Building, and it bothered her, but she also walks in front of all of those other places, where she must also be bothered, and hence, additional court cases?
“She has no Clearances, or expertise whatsoever, in National Security, Defense, or required protections for the President. She has absolutely no standing to be involved in this case and, in fact, her name is not even mentioned as a plaintiff in the case! It is this kind of gross and flagrant abuse of our Courts that is exactly why Americans are losing faith in our System of Justice. It is so bad for our Country! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
And buried underneath Trump’s unmistakable rhetorical style are several substantive claims that deserve considerably more attention than the word “TREASONISTS.”
The White House project has been controversial almost from the beginning.
Trump demolished the East Wing last year to make room for the massive new structure, initially promoted as a privately funded ballroom capable of accommodating events too large for the existing White House facilities.
Its scope grew dramatically.
Architect James McCrery reportedly warned Trump that the planned 90,000-square-foot addition risked dwarfing the roughly 55,000-square-foot White House. Trump eventually replaced McCrery amid disagreements over the project.
The price tag has grown too.
Trump initially emphasized private funding, but subsequent reporting based on government invoices indicated that the overall project could reach approximately $600 million, with significant costs falling on taxpayers.
But the administration has increasingly emphasized another aspect of the construction: Security.
Trump has described the ballroom and the secure infrastructure beneath and around it as one integrated project.
Friday night, he went further than ever before, specifically identifying a “Drone Port, which occupies the entire roof.”
That’s a remarkable detail for a president to put into a public social-media post while simultaneously accusing his opponents of revealing national-security information.
The immediate problem for Trump is legal.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to stop the project, arguing the administration had bypassed legal requirements governing major changes to the White House complex.
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit blocked further construction.
The court concluded that the administration could not proceed with the ballroom project without congressional approval.
Trump responded by arguing that the injunction itself creates a national-security danger because construction has already progressed far enough that stopping the upper portion leaves the security components below incomplete or ineffective.
His administration has maintained that the project’s public-facing ballroom cannot simply be separated from the classified security infrastructure incorporated into the site.
The legal question is whether the president had authority to begin and continue such extensive construction without Congress.
The security question is whether stopping a partially completed integrated facility creates vulnerabilities.
Those are two separate questions.
Trump also focused much of his post on the legal concept of standing — essentially whether a plaintiff has suffered the type of concrete injury necessary to bring a lawsuit.
He ridiculed one woman involved in the litigation as someone whose claimed connection to the White House grounds stems from walking her dog nearby.
Trump argued that someone who had never seen the completed structure, lacked security clearances and had no national-security expertise couldn’t plausibly claim an injury sufficient to halt a project of this magnitude.
The Trust’s broader case, however, concerns historic preservation and compliance with federal procedures governing alterations to the White House complex, rather than the woman’s qualifications to make security judgments herself.
Whether the plaintiffs ultimately have standing is a legal question the courts will decide.
But Trump’s political argument is obvious: How can private litigants use the courts to stop a presidential security project once construction is underway?
The most consequential part of Trump’s post may not be his attack on standing.
It’s this:
“They were asked by the United States Military not to bring this suit because of the Top Secret nature of the important facility being built.”
Trump further claims that representatives of the Trust were shown detailed plans by senior military and Secret Service officials.
If accurate, that raises several questions.
What classified or sensitive information was provided? Under what conditions? Did litigation subsequently cause sensitive details to enter public court filings? Did the Trust actually reveal classified information? And if so, was it information the organization was legally prohibited from disclosing?
Those questions require evidence beyond Trump’s social-media accusation.
DBS WIRE SOURCES:
- Mediaite — Trump rails against group that sued to stop ballroom: ‘TREASONISTS’
- National Trust for Historic Preservation — About the National Trust
- Trump’s complete Truth Social statement
- Mediaite — Appeals court blocks construction of Trump’s ballroom
- Washington Post — Records reveal rising cost and taxpayer spending on White House ballroom project
