The Trump administration’s Justice Department filed a court brief Monday arguing that construction on the $400 million White House ballroom must resume, and it read less like a legal document and more like a presidential social media post. Complete with random capitalization, exclamation points, and phrases long associated with the 79-year-old president, the filing turned heads in legal circles almost immediately.
According to The Daily Beast, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, and DOJ lawyer Trent McCotter submitted the nine-page court filing to U.S. District Judge Richard Leon on Monday. The document invoked the alleged assassination attempt at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner as a reason to lift the construction injunction and let building work continue.
Trump himself appeared to confirm the document’s unconventional style when he shared screenshots of the filing to Truth Social on Tuesday morning.
The brief that sounds like Trump wrote it himself
The filing opens with a multi-hundred-word attack on the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the group that filed a lawsuit to block construction of the ballroom. The Hill reported that Acting AG Blanche had already written a separate letter to the organization on Sunday, giving it until 9 a.m. Monday to drop the case or face a government motion to dissolve the injunction.
The court document’s opening section called the preservation group’s name “FAKE” and accused it of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS.” It also directly repeated arguments Trump had posted to Truth Social on Sunday, including his claim that the woman who initiated the lawsuit had “no standing.”
By the end of the brief, the document shifted back into the same rambling style, with passages like: “If any other President had the ability, foresight, or talents necessary to build this ballroom, which will be one of the greatest, safest, and most secure structures of its kind anywhere in the World, there would never have been a lawsuit. But, because it is DONALD J. TRUMP, a highly successful real estate developer, who has abilities that others don’t, especially those who assume the Office of President, this frivolous and meritless lawsuit was filed.”
It then added: “Again, it’s called TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”
The ballroom battle, explained
Judge Leon granted the preservation group a preliminary injunction last month, halting the 90,000-square-foot ballroom project until it received congressional approval. He later limited construction to below-ground work for security purposes, though a D.C. Circuit appeals panel subsequently allowed the broader project to continue into June while the government’s appeal proceeds. Oral arguments are set for June 5.
The ballroom is being funded through donations from Trump allies rather than taxpayer money. Trump and several Republican lawmakers have pointed to the shooting at the correspondents’ dinner on April 25 as proof the venue is needed for presidential security. However, the Washington Hilton, where the dinner was held, holds a significantly larger crowd than Trump’s planned venue, and the WHCA dinner is a private event with no guarantee it would ever be moved to the White House.
In the DOJ’s earlier Sunday letter, Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate told the preservation group’s lawyers that their lawsuit “puts the lives of the president, his family and staff at grave risk.” The National Trust responded in writing that it would not be dropping the case.
Congressional allies and the WHCA shooting
Republican support for the ballroom project has grown louder since Saturday’s incident, in which 31-year-old Cole Allen allegedly ran through a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton armed with a shotgun, a pistol, and multiple knives. A Secret Service officer was struck in the chest but survived thanks to a ballistic vest. Allen has since been charged with attempted assassination of the president, among other counts.
Trump has repeatedly framed the shooting as justification for completing the ballroom, calling the structure “drone proof” and saying it would offer security “that nobody has ever seen before.” GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert and Rep. Randy Fine, who announced the “Build the Ballroom Act,” are among those rallying behind legislation to move the project forward without a court fight.
Trump’s use of major incidents to push personal priorities is a pattern that critics and supporters alike have noticed. The president has also drawn attention for his social media behavior in other contexts, including when he shared a Jesus image just days after facing blasphemy backlash, and when he dismissed record inflation figures as “fake” during a period of economic scrutiny.
