A US judge has ordered a halt to construction of a massive ballroom launched by President Donald Trump after the tearing down of the historic East Wing at the White House.
Mr Trump is "steward" of the White House but "he is not, however, the owner!" wrote Judge Richard Leon, saying that congressional approval would be needed for the project.
"No statute comes close to giving the president the authority he claims to have," Judge Leon added.
Mr Trump, a billionaire real estate developer, has made no secret of his passion for the ballroom project.
He shocked many by having an entire section of the White House abruptly bulldozed last October, announcing the need for a new large-scale events centre.
Since then, the 79-year-old Republican has rarely missed an opportunity to discuss the project, frequently meandering in mid-speech on other topics to riff about the architectural details of the proposed facility.
Today, Mr Trump railed on social media against the National Trust, calling the group "a Radical Left Group of Lunatics".
The ballroom would be "the finest Building of its kind anywhere in the World," he insisted.
The ballroom would be Mr Trump's biggest mark yet on the US capital since his return to office in January 2025.
The president has plastered the famed Oval Office in gold decorations, paved over the Rose Garden, and emblazoned his own name on the Kennedy Arts Center.
Mr Trump says that the cost of the ballroom - initially proposed at $200 million (€173m) but now estimated at as much as $400 million - is being met by private donors, including his wealthy supporters and a slew of corporations.
Judge Leon's scathing opinion said that the decision for the project rested with Congress, which should also decide how it could be funded.
"Ballroom construction project must stop until Congress authorises its completion," Judge Leon wrote, offering a two-week delay to his order to allow Mr Trump to appeal.
"The president may at any time go to Congress to obtain express authority to construct a ballroom and to do so with private funds. Indeed, Congress may even choose to appropriate funds for the ballroom," Judge Leon wrote.
"Either way, Congress will thereby retain its authority over the nation's property and its oversight over the government's spending."
Judge blocks Trump's executive order defunding public radio, TV services
Another federal judge blocked the implementation of an "unlawful and unenforceable" order by Mr Trump to end funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Mr Trump's order sought to punish the media outlets for speech he dislikes, US District Judge Randolph Moss ruled, noting that the First Amendment protection of free speech "does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type".
The executive order, issued on 1 May 2025, had sought to terminate financial backing for NPR and PBS, saying it was "to ensure that Federal funding does not support biased and partisan news coverage".
Mr Trump regularly accuses news media that are critical of him of having a "liberal" bias. Last year, he claimed that NPR and PBS were "arms of the Radical Left Democrat Party".
Judge Moss, in a 62-page opinion, said Mr Trump was free to critique but that his executive order was clearly designed to "squelch" viewpoints that he opposes.
"To be sure, the president is entitled to criticise this or any other reporting, and he can express his own views as he sees fit," the judge wrote.
"He may not, however, use his governmental power to direct federal agencies to exclude plaintiffs from receiving federal grants or other funding in retaliation for saying things that he does not like."
Mr Trump's executive order preceded a vote by Congress in July that scrapped $1.1bn in funding for the now-defunct Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which provided a minority share of the NPR and PBS budgets.
The move was a win for the costcutting mission of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), launched by tech billionaire Elon Musk as Mr Trump swept to power.
