Policy / April 29, 2026
The president’s decision to commandeer the Justice Department to argue that its ballroom is a security necessity is the ultimate sign of this country’s decline.
Donald Trump looks at the construction site of the White House ballroom.
(Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Donald Trump’s ballroom at the White House is THE something that proves that America is in decline. It’s Nero’s violin. It’s Marie-Antoinette’s cake. In a time of environmental catastrophe, on the brink of the robotic revolution, in times of war, in times of economic hardship, and in the immediate aftermath of an assassination attempt, this gilded play space has become the focus of not only the sitting president, but also the Department of Justice, the American press, and several courts.
The completely crazy nature of this obsession became truly evident earlier this week when Trump decided to use the failed assassination attempt to gain public support for his ballroom — which is a crazy thing to write about, let alone live through. “This event would never have happened with the top secret military ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It can’t be built fast enough!” Asset job on Truth Social, echoing comments he made on Fox News shortly after the assassination attempt.
The idea that Trump needs a top secret ballroom (that everyone knows about) for presidential security is like saying JFK needed a faster convertible. It’s absurd. The latest assassination attempt took place at an event where Trump was a guest and not the host; the dinner would not have taken place in the ballroom even if it existed. And so is the previous assassination attempt, which happened at one of Trump’s golf courses, and the previous one, which took place at one of his own campaign rallies. None of these events would have taken place in a ballroom. Having a safe place where Trump could host visiting courtiers would not have protected him from these threats.
This basic reality hasn’t stopped Trump, his lackeys, and whatever John Fetterman is these days, from using every media outlet at their disposal to make the case for the ballroom. Their efforts to bring back the Golden Age, one failed assassination attempt at a time, were not limited to television and social media either. Absurdly, the administration is trying to get the courts to greenlight Trump’s Sun King renovations on the ridiculous theory that gold-plated chandeliers stop bullets. They immortalized their absurd argument in a court petition.
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This motion marks a new low in the history of the Department of Justice, in the history of Trump’s Department of Justice, which says something. But I really believe we’ve reached a nadir – at least until the next horror that I don’t have the creativity to imagine.
To fully appreciate it, one must understand the state of play of legal challenges against the ballroom.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private nonprofit organization established by Congress in 1949, sued to stop construction of Trump’s ballroom. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that Trump did not have “unilateral authority” to continue construction. After all, the White House is “the people’s house,” not Mar-a-Lago North. The DOJ, on behalf of Trump, appealed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the case is still pending.
It is important to note that Judge Leon authorized the completion of the underground “bunker” portion of the construction project. If Trump wants to stay in a bunker all day, no one will stop him. The only thing that has been halted is the above-ground construction of what was formerly known as the East Wing. The president cannot decide on his own what the White House will look like.
This all happened before the botched assassination attempt. Subsequently, the DOJ sent a letter to the National Trust, asking it to voluntarily dismiss this lawsuit. The National Trust refused. In response, Gregory Craig, the lawyer representing the National Trust, wrote: “Your assertion that this trial puts the President’s life at ‘grave risk’ is incorrect and irresponsible.…Simply put, this case in no way endangers the President’s safety.”
Good for Greg. Sometimes you have to tell these people they’re stupid to their face.
In response, the DOJ made a complete fool of itself. Deputy Attorney General Stanley Woodward, a previously random Trump criminal defense attorney who rose to the third-highest position in the Justice Department, filed a motion with Judge Leon seeking an “indicative ruling” against his previous ruling.
To put it simply, these damn people asked a sitting judge to rule on a decision that has already been appealed and over which he no longer has any authority. Leon cannot change the course of the trial now, because he has already literally made a decision. And yet the DOJ asked him to essentially say, “I would take all of this back if I could.” Their “argument” is that Trump’s life is in danger if he doesn’t get a new dance floor, and they want Leon to renege on his previous court ruling – all because of an assassination attempt that didn’t even take place at the White House.
But wait, it’s worse. As first reported by Chris Geidner on his Substack Stupid lawit appears that Woodward and the DOJ authorized Trump himself to write most of the legal brief. The 500 word opening does not read like a legal filing. Instead, he all the telltale signs from a message from Trump on social networks. There is the ubiquitous use of exclamation points. The random use of capital letters to emphasize words. The reference to “Trump derangement syndrome”.
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This is not a legal document, it is a speech by Trump filed in court.
This decision constitutes a betrayal of what the DOJ stands for and a massive legal power grab by Trump. To put things in context: President Joe Biden wouldn’t even want to call Attorney General Merrick Garland to check his work. Attorney General Loretta Lynch recused herself from an entire case because former President Bill Clinton spoke to her briefly on a tarmac. But now President Trump seems to write DOJ court documents. In 10 years, we have gone from a wall of separation between the White House and the DOJ to a White House that literally dictates orders to the agency.
I guess I should be happy that Trump and the DOJ crossed that Rubicon for something as stupid as ballroom, as opposed to anything close to important. And it’s not like people don’t already know that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is here to do whatever Trump tells him to do. Yet asking Trump himself to draft the documents lowers the bar to previously uncharted depths. And, as with everything happening in the Trump administration, it will only get worse.
The three-judge panel that will hear Trump’s appeal is made up of Patrica Millet (Obama appointee), Bradley Garcia (Biden appointee) and Neomi Rao (Trump appointee). I expect Judge Leon’s decision to be upheld by this panel (on what will be a truly disjointed dissent from Rao, who still hopes to one day be Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court), and then it will be sent back to the Supreme Court. The vast Republican majority on this court might very well give Trump their bottle (I mean, the ballroom), but they might not, because, again, this question is beyond stupid.
But if Trump loses all his appeals, will he respect the decisions? I wouldn’t have thought Trump would tell the Supreme Court to go jump into a lake in a fucking ballroom, but I mean the man survived another threat to his life, and the first thing he thought was, “See, what I really need is break down in a dance.” He is obsessed with this beyond all reason.
What’s truly astonishing about all of this is that his capture of the DOJ will survive his tenure, but his ballroom will not. That’s because I expect the next Democratic president (if there is a next Democratic president) to destroy the ballroom. And then I expect them to pursue the criminals of the Trump administration, even if they have to write the charging documents themselves.
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Elie Mystal Elie Mystal is The nationjustice correspondent and columnist. He is also an Alfred Knobler Fellow at the Type Media Center. He is the author of two books: New York Times bestseller Let me respond: A Guide to the Constitution for Black Men And Bad Laws: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining Americaboth published by The New Press. You can subscribe to his Nation newsletter “Elie c. US » here.