A federal judge on Tuesday ordered an immediate stop to construction of the planned White House ballroom, siding with a preservation group that argued the project was moving forward without proper legal authorization.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that the plaintiffs are likely to prevail, stating in his decision that “no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have.”

The ruling places a temporary freeze on the project, though Leon delayed implementation of the injunction for 14 days to give the White House an opportunity to challenge the decision. The Justice Department is expected to file an appeal.

“I will therefore delay enforcement of the injunction for fourteen days,” Leon wrote, adding that the administration intends to pursue immediate review by a higher court.

The case was filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which contended that the ballroom project could not proceed without prior approval from Congress.

In his opinion, Leon indicated that construction could move forward if lawmakers explicitly authorize the project or allocate funding, underscoring Congress’s control over federal property and expenditures.

President Donald Trump responded sharply to the lawsuit in a post on Truth Social, referring to the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a “Radical Left Group of Lunatics” and defending the project as “under budget” and “being built at no cost to the taxpayer.”

“The National Trust for Historic Preservation sues me for a Ballroom that 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,” the president wrote.

Trump had previously shared renderings of the proposed ballroom on Truth Social last month, showing a large structure featuring Greco-Roman columns and covering approximately 90,000 square feet, according to a White House statement.

The ballroom project is part of a broader push by Trump to overhaul and enhance key sites in Washington, D.C., including planned construction at the Trump-Kennedy Center later this summer and recent efforts to restore the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall.