Agency Approves Ballroom Despite Judge's Ruling

President Trump's $400 million White House ballroom won final approval from a key agency on Thursday, days after a federal judge ordered a halt to construction unless Congress allows what would be the biggest structural change to the Executive Mansion in more than 70 years. The National Capital Planning Commission, the agency responsible for approving construction on federal property in the Washington, DC, region, went ahead with the vote because US District Judge Richard Leon's ruling on Tuesday affects construction activities, not the planning process, a commission spokesperson said. Despite the approval, the legal fight over the ballroom could stall progress on the project, the AP reports.

Trump is racing to see the ballroom completed before the end of his term in early 2029. It's among a series of changes the Republican is planning for the nation's capital to leave his lasting imprint on the nation's capital. The vote by the 12-person commission, including three members appointed by Trump, had initially been scheduled for March but was pushed to Thursday because so many people signed up to comment on it at the commission's meeting. The comments were overwhelmingly opposed to the ballroom. Before voting Thursday, the commission considered design changes to the 90,000-square-foot ballroom addition that Trump announced aboard Air Force One on Sunday.

He removed a large staircase on the south side of the building and added an uncovered porch to the west side. Architects and other critics of the project had panned the staircase as too large and basically useless since there was no way to enter the ballroom at the top. Trump gave no reason for the changes; a White House official said the president had considered comments from the National Capital Planning Commission and another oversight entity, the US Commission of Fine Arts, which approved the project earlier this year, as well as the public. The official said that additional "refinements" had been made to the building's exterior and that lead architect Shalom Baranes would present them on Thursday. Work continued at the site on Wednesday, photos by the AP show.