For CNN’s The Situation Room, they ended the week on a high note as they got to break the news that the liberal D.C. Appeals Court ruled that President Trump had to stop construction of the new White House Ballroom and office spaces. They touted how the ruling was about saying a president couldn’t undertake a massive renovation project with the White House, but completely ignored how it was once completely gutted for a massive renovation project.
“Yeah, we’re learning that the federal appeals court in Washington says that Donald Trump is unlawfully constructing the White House Ballroom,” crowed correspondent Katelyn Polantz as she began to share the grandstanding comments two of the three judges on the panel made against Trump:
“Each president is a temporary tenant, not the owner of the White House and its executive residence.” That is what is written in a two to one decision today.
“The president has no and claims no constitutionally assigned authority over that property, which is designed and maintained for the use of all presidents.” And so, they're shutting down. This is the D.C. Circuit court of appeals. They are shutting down the work that Donald Trump has been doing on that ballroom.
Polantz went on to gush about the “recurring statement that's coming from the courts” regarding how “it's not Donald Trump's house, it's the president's house, and even more so, it's the people's house. And thus, one president can't just decide to do this level of renovation.”
Of course, President Harry S. Truman conducted a major ‘level of renovation’ when he had the entire White House gutted and reconstructed because it was in danger of collapsing.
CNN touts liberal DC court saying Trump can't build the ballroom.
"[T]he D.C. Circuit, saying that it's not Donald Trump's house, it's the president's house, and even more so, it's the people's house. And thus, one president can't just decide to do this level of renovation,"… pic.twitter.com/FBRC9FaqcT— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) August 7, 2026
Co-host Wolf Blitzer whined about the idea of even needing to tear down the old East Wing to build the ballroom because he had personal history there:
I've walked around that East Wing, that destructive - the destruction is intense. And I spent seven years as a White House reporter, spent a lot of time in the East Wing. And it was hard for me to believe that to build this ballroom, they were destroying that whole East Wing of the White House with a lot of history unfolding at the same time.
Okay everyone, wherever Wolf Blitzer has walked is now holy ground and can never be touched! Pass it on.
It wasn’t until a couple minutes later that White House correspondent Kevin Liptak brought up the elephant in the room, or rather, the one on the White House lawn, of the massive hole and construction site. He noted the ballroom construction would be halted but it really wasn’t a remedy. He also hinted (although he tripped over his words) that the ruling also permitted the bunker construction to proceed:
My question is, what happens to the giant pit that is now on the east side of the White House, where this is being built? If construction is halted, I'm not sure what's going to happen to this enormous construction site that is, you know, been well underway now for months and months.
The ruling today halts the - it halts the ruling. So, construction can continue until the president appeals this to the Supreme Court. But if the president loses at the Supreme Court, I don't know exactly what the plan would be to get that back into shape. You know, it's not usable in any capacity at the moment. It's a giant construction pit.
There was no talk of the cognitive dissonance from the court where they would allow the bunker to be completed, with the idea being that other presidents could use it, but put the kibosh on the ballroom, which would also be used by other presidents.
Of course, while CNN usually clambers to share the dissent from the liberal justices whenever Trump won a case, they didn’t want to share anything from Judge Rao, who wrote:
[T]his case is not about tearing down the White House and building a skyscraper or razing the Statue of Liberty. Contra National Trust II, 827 F. Supp. 3d at 107; Majority Op. 42. The equitable balance is between the asserted aesthetic harm to a single passerby and the safety and security of the President as well as his family, staff, and guests at the White House.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Situation Room
August 7. 2026
11:07:25 a.m. Eastern(…)
WOLF BLITZER: Katelyn Polantz you're getting some new information. What are you learning?
KATELYN POLANTZ: Yeah, we’re learning that the federal appeals court in Washington says that Donald Trump is unlawfully constructing the White House Ballroom. “Each president is a temporary tenant, not the owner of the White House and its executive residence.” That is what is written in a two to one decision today.
“The president has no and claims no constitutionally assigned authority over that property, which is designed and maintained for the use of all presidents.” And so, they're shutting down. This is the D.C. Circuit court of appeals. They are shutting down the work that Donald Trump has been doing on that ballroom.
It had been off and on as a court battle was ensuing. The White House had argued several times over that they needed to continue work on the East Wing Ballroom, that Trump had torn down with very -
BLITZER: That whole East Wing is basically destroyed right now.
POLANTZ: Yeah, and it happened very quickly when the work began. That's when the courts then started to step in.
The White House and Trump himself have been arguing that they need to continue building it for national security reasons and security around the president and all of the people that work at the White House. BUT, there is a recurring statement that's coming from the courts, both at the trial level and then now from the D.C. Circuit, saying that it's not Donald Trump's house, it's the president's house, and even more so, it's the people's house. And thus, one president can't just decide to do this level of renovation.
BLITZER: I've walked around that East Wing, that destructive - the destruction is intense. And I spent seven years as a White House reporter, spent a lot of time in the East Wing. And it was hard for me to believe that to build this ballroom, they were destroying that whole East Wing of the White House with a lot of history unfolding at the same time.
PAMELA BROWN: Yeah. And it's notable. So, while Trump had a win with Senator Cassidy, this is certainly a loss for the administration.
(…)
11:10:29 p.m. Eastern
KEVIN LIPTAK: My question is, what happens to the giant pit that is now on the east side of the White House, where this is being built? If construction is halted, I'm not sure what's going to happen to this enormous construction site that is, you know, been well underway now for months and months.
The ruling today halts the - it halts the ruling. So, construction can continue until the president appeals this to the Supreme Court. But if the president loses at the Supreme Court, I don't know exactly what the plan would be to get that back into shape. You know, it's not usable in any capacity at the moment. It's a giant construction pit.
And so in a lot of ways, these rulings - and you hear this from officials at the White House as well, is, you know, they came too late. If the National Trust for Historic Preservation had real concerns about the ballroom plans, they question why they didn't file them in court until the East Wing was torn down and there was a giant hole in the ground.
So, that is an argument that I think you will probably continue to hear as they dispute what the courts and what the historic press - trust is trying to argue in this ruling. But clearly it is a setback for the president on what has been an enormous priority of his over the course of this term.
(…)
