A US judge has halted the construction of Donald Trump’s $400m White House ballroom.

The US president demolished the historic East Wing of the White House last year to make way for the project.

US district judge Richard Leon in Washington granted a request for a preliminary injunction by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a non-profit organization that brought a lawsuit alleging that Trump had exceeded his authority by razing the East Wing and beginning construction without approval from Congress.

The decision by Leon, an appointee of George W Bush, leaves the 90,000-sq-ft ballroom project on hold unless it receives approval from Congress.

“Unless and until Congress blesses this project through statutory authorization, construction has to stop!” Leon wrote in his opinion on Tuesday. “But here is the good news. It is not too late for Congress to authorize the continued construction of the ballroom project.”

The Trump administration immediately appealed against the order.

In a statement on his Truth Social platform shortly after the ruling, Trump attacked the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which he called “a radical left group of lunatics”. The ballroom is “under budget, ahead of schedule, being built at no cost to the Taxpayer, and will be the finest Building of its kind anywhere in the World”, the president claimed.

In a subsequent post, Trump attacked the judge’s decision: “He is WRONG!”

“Congressional approval has never been given on anything, in these circumstances, big or small, having to do with construction at the White House,” Trump claimed.

President Harry Truman, who oversaw the last major renovation of the White House from 1949 to 1952, did seek and eventually receive congressional approval for his plans.

Leon, in his order, said Trump needs to take a similar approach.

“The president may at any time go to Congress to obtain express authority to construct a ballroom and to do so with private funds,” Leon wrote in his opinion.

“Indeed, Congress may even choose to appropriate funds for the ballroom, or at least decide that some other funding scheme is acceptable. Either way, Congress will thereby retain its authority over the nation’s property and its oversight over the government’s spending.”

He added: “The National Trust’s interests in a constitutional and lawful process will be vindicated. And the American people will benefit from the branches of Government exercising their constitutionally prescribed roles. Not a bad outcome, that!”

The decision comes after months of litigation. Earlier this month, Leon had signaled his skepticism about the administration’s argument that the ballroom was an allowed “alteration” to White House grounds.

“I’m struggling to see this as an ‘alteration’,” Leon said.

White House lawyers have argued that the president did not need congressional approval for the project.

In February, Leon declined an earlier request from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to halt construction of the ballroom, on procedural grounds, but he said he would consider an amended complaint, which the group filed shortly after.

The most recently reported cost estimate for the ballroom stands at $400m. It has previously been reported that the project is being financed by private donors and large corporations including Meta, Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Palantir, Google and Comcast. (The Guardian)

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President Donald Trump has installed plaques underneath portraits of presidents at the White House, using them to insult and make unfounded claims about some of his predecessors, including Joe Biden and Barack Obama — the latest in a series of controversial White House changes under Trump.

The plaques, many of which the White House said Trump penned himself, add to what the president has dubbed the “Presidential Walk of Fame” — a portrait gallery along the West Wing Colonnade — and describe the tenures of former commanders in chief in an overtly political way.

Trump’s most recent predecessors’ plaques read the most editorialized. The permanent signs are stylistically similar to the president’s social media posts, with sporadic capitalizations and punctuation — including many exclamation points.

Under Biden, depicted only by his signature written by the presidential autopen, the plaque includes claims such as “Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History,” adding that he took office “as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States” and that “Biden oversaw a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”

Trump also attacked Biden for his economic record, his climate, immigration and foreign policies, including the Afghanistan withdrawal (calling it “among the most humiliating events in American History”). He also said that because of Biden’s “weakness,” Russia invaded Ukraine, and “Hamas terrorists launched the heinous October 7th attack on Israel.”

The plaque also cites what Trump calls Biden’s “severe mental decline, and his unprecedented use of the Autopen.”

Under Obama, Trump wrote: “Barack Hussein Obama was the first Black President, a community organizer, one term Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American History.” 

Obama’s plaque ends with a more false claims that he “spied on the 2016 Presidential Campaign of Donald J. Trump, and presided over the creation of the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, the worst political scandal in American History.” 

The plaques also make two references to Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of State and the 2016 Democratic nominee who lost to Trump. Under Obama’s portrait, it says that Hillary Clinton was his “handpicked successor,” and noted that she “would then lose the Presidency to Donald J. Trump.” Under Bill Clinton’s portrait, it says that “President Clinton’s wife, Hillary, lost the Presidency to President Donald J. Trump.”

Obama had no comment about the plaque. ABC News did not receive immediate responses from Biden and the Clintons for comment.

Many of the plaques were “written directly by the President himself,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement about the new decor.

“The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind. As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself,” Leavitt said in the statement.

Trump had teased these bronze plaques during an interview with Fox’s Laura Ingraham in November, saying that each would describe what the respective president did during his tenure.

In addition to the changes he has made to the colonnade, Trump has also altered the White House by paving over the Rose Garden, renovating White House Palm Room that was originally designed by former first lady Jackie Kennedy and connects the front of the White House to the Rose Garden in the back and redesigning the Oval Office. He has added statues around the Rose Garden and added ample gold leafing and decor to the Oval Office.

Most notably, Trump tore down the East Wing of the White House earlier this year, making room for a sweeping, multimillion-dollar ballroom that the president has said will be completed by the end of his term. (ABC News)

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As federal officials carry out the Trump administration’s deportation plans across the country, the White House on Tuesday sparked backlash after posting a video on X mocking immigrants being deported.

The video shows what appears to be ICE officials placing immigrants in chains and handcuffs before they board a plane, presumably for deportation. The post is captioned, “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight,” referring to the acronym for “autonomous sensory meridian response,” a pleasant physical sensation triggered by certain sounds that has become a popular genre of videos on some social media platforms.

The video was filmed during an operation at King County International Airport-Boeing Field in Seattle two weeks ago, reported The Seattle Times, citing a volunteer with an immigrant rights group that monitors weekly deportation flights out of the airport.

Elon Musk, whom President Donald Trump has tasked with gutting the federal workforce through the nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency, reposted the video, writing, “Haha wow” along with emojis of a troll and a medal.

The White House later shared Musk’s post.

Such deportation operations took place during former President Joe Biden’s term as well. But the Trump administration’s attempts to make a public spectacle out of its mass deportation efforts — which has included Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem delivering sinister warnings to undocumented immigrants that the government will “hunt you down” — underscores its dehumanization of immigrant communities.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the White House’s post had been seen more than 68 million times, according to X. Many of the online responses to the post were critical, as CNBC reported, with some calling it “disgusting” and “cruel.”

Although most of Trump’s campaign promises centered on deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records, data obtained by NBC News show that 41% of people detained by ICE in the first two weeks of February had no previous criminal conviction or had a pending criminal charge. Trump’s sweeping and haphazard deportation efforts have ensnared U.S. citizens as well, raising allegations about racial profiling by federal officials. (MSNBC)

ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight pic.twitter.com/O6L1iYt9b4

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 18, 2025

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The White House budget office has ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans, according to an internal memorandum sent Monday.

US Federal agencies “must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance,” White House Office of Management and Budget acting director Matthew Vaeth said in the memorandum, a copy of which was obtained by CNN. The pause also blocks the issuance of new grants.

The memo specifies that the pause will not affect Social Security or Medicare benefits, nor does it include “assistance provided directly to individuals.”

The freeze on federal assistance is slated to take effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday and could impact trillions of dollars. It marks the latest move by the Trump administration to exert control over federal funding, even that which has already been allocated by Congress.

“This temporary pause will provide the Administration time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities,” Vaeth wrote.

The memo suggests that the pause is in line with President Donald Trump’s executive orders last week.

The pause also applies to “other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” according to the memo.

“Career and political appointees in the Executive Branch have a duty to align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities,” Vaeth wrote.

“Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing, ending ‘wokeness’ and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again,” he continued. “The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.”

According to the memo, the budget office “may grant exceptions allowing Federal agencies to issue new awards or take other actions on a case-by-case basis.”

“To the extent required by law,” agencies may also take “certain administrative actions” like closing out grants, it states.

The memo calls on agencies to submit to OMB “detailed information on any programs, projects or activities subject to this pause” by February 10.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut — the top Democratic appropriators in Congress — wrote a letter to the White House on Monday night outlining their “extreme alarm” with the move.

“The scope of what you are ordering is breathtaking, unprecedented, and will have devastating consequences across the country,” the lawmakers wrote. “We write today to urge you in the strongest possible terms to uphold the law and the Constitution and ensure all federal resources are delivered in accordance with the law.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also quickly criticized the pause.

“Congress approved these investments and they are not optional; they are the law,” the New York Democrat said in a statement Monday night. “These grants help people in red states and blue states, support families, help parents raise kids, and lead to stronger communities.”

Schumer added that the action jeapordizes “billions upon billions of community grants and financial support that help millions of people across the country.”

“It will mean missed payrolls and rent payments and everything in between: chaos for everything from universities to non-profit charities,” he said. (CNN)

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Honouring the global Buddhist community, the White House in Washington DC, led by Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, celebrated Vesak with a formal ceremony recently (May 23). 

According to the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington DC, the event took place at the White House, marking the day of Vesak, which is observed by millions of Buddhists in the US and worldwide. The ceremony emphasized the relevance of Buddhist teachings in promoting peace, tolerance, and compassion and offering sustained solutions to global challenges.

The ceremony was a testament to the diversity and unity within the Buddhist community. Buddhist priests from various traditions came together, lighting lamps and chanting prayers in front of a specially set-up platform. The platform featured a large Buddha statue, donated to the White House by the Sri Lanka Embassy last year, and was adorned with decorations ranging from flowers to Buddhist flags and lamps.

The event was attended by representatives of all Buddhist faiths, the diplomatic community, senior White House officials led by Deputy Assistant to the President Erika Moritsugu, senior State Department officials including Assistant Secretary Ambassador Donald Lu and Deputy Assistant Secretary Afreen Akhter, other senior US government officials, interfaith leaders, and members of civil society, including the International Buddhist Association of America.

In the meantime, President Biden, in a statement, marked the day by underscoring the significance of the occasion and extending his warm wishes to Buddhists in the US and around the world. He acknowledged the importance of Buddhist teachings, primarily highlighting the value of such principles in addressing current global issues. 

Ambassador Mahinda Samarasinghe represented Sri Lanka at the invitation of the White House. In March this year, Ambassador Samarasinghe initiated the first preparatory meeting at his official residence in the presence of all stakeholders, including from the White House, who were responsible for arranging this year’s celebration. 

Ven. Katugastota Uparathana Thero (Chief Incumbent of Maryland Buddhist Vihara),   Ven. Karaputugala Indraratana Thero (Chief Incumbent of Sri Sambuddhaloka Vihara, Hagerstown), Ven. Ethkandawaka Saddhajeewa Thero (Chief Incumbent of West Virginia Buddhist Temple), Ven. Thalawe Damithabodhi Thero (Chief Incumbent of the Mahamewna Meditation Center, Washington DC), and Ven. Wathuliyadde Rathanaseeha Thero (Washington Buddhist Vihara) also represented the Sri Lankan Buddhist community in the US at the White House event. (Newswire)

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