Trump jokes he’s a ‘King’ who can’t get a ballroom approved

STORY:     A U.S. judge said on Tuesday (March 31) that President Donald Trump cannot construct his planned $400 million ballroom on the site of the White House's demolished East Wing without approval from Congress, halting for now one of the Republican president's most visible efforts to reshape the seat of American power.

"I'm such a king, I can't get a ballroom approved," Trump joked at an Easter lunch at the White House on Wednesday (April 1).

"We had a Trump-hating judge give us things saying I have to get approval from Congress," the president added.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon granted a request for a preliminary injunction by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit organization that brought a lawsuit alleging Trump exceeded his authority when he razed the historic East Wing and launched construction on the new building.

The decision by Leon, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, keeps the 90,000-square-foot ballroom project on hold while the lawsuit continues.

The Justice Department hours after Leon issued his order appealed it to the Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Trump in a post on his social media site Truth Social called the National Trust a group of left-wing "lunatics" and said his ballroom is "under budget, ahead of schedule, being built at no cost to the Taxpayer, and will be the finest Building of its kind anywhere in the World."

Trump has championed the ballroom as a defining addition to the White House and a lasting symbol of his presidency.

Production: Eva Weininger/Reuters