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Good morning, it's Sunday, August 9. A federal appeals court ruled that Trump must stop building his White House ballroom because he never asked Congress for permission.
Also in today's issue: The war's growing bill at the pump, Private prisons cash in on ankle monitors, A rare bipartisan win in the Senate.
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Not His House to Rebuild
A federal appeals court just told the president of the United States that he is a tenant.
That line — from Friday's 2-1 ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals — is the most important sentence written about the White House in years. Judges Patricia Millett and Bradley Garcia said it plainly: each president is a temporary tenant, not the owner. The case is about a ballroom. But what it decides is whether a president can tear down part of America's most famous building and replace it without ever asking Congress.
Here's the part that should matter to you first. The project Trump has called "taxpayer-free" is not. Internal contractor estimates obtained by the Washington Post put the real price at $600 million — not the $400 million Trump has publicly claimed. Roughly half, about $307 million, is being drawn from the Secret Service, the White House Military Office, and the Executive Residence. All three run on your tax dollars. That's money quietly shifted from budgets meant to protect the president and run the building — not construct a 90,000-square-foot party venue larger than the White House itself.
Trump demolished the East Wing last October to make room for the project. What he didn't do — and this is where things get complicated — is ask Congress. Under federal law, major construction on the White House grounds requires approval from lawmakers. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a group chartered by Congress to protect landmarks, sued. A lower court blocked the above-ground work. And on Friday, the appeals court agreed.
The majority didn't mince words. The ballroom "is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for executive self-help." That phrase is worth sitting with. It means there are things a president cannot do alone — no matter how much private money is behind it. Federal property belongs to the public, and Congress decides what happens to it.
Here's what the ruling leaves open, though. The court didn't say the ballroom can never be built. It said Trump has to go through the process. The 14-day stay gives him time to take this to the Supreme Court, and he's already said he will, calling the decision "horrendous, politically motivated and unlawful." Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, dissented. Underground bunker work can continue — that was carved out. But the ballroom above it has to stop.
What happens next matters. If the Supreme Court takes the case, it becomes a test of how far executive power reaches over federal property. If the court declines, the project either dies or goes to Congress — where both parties have already shown skepticism. A Republican-led proposal to fund $1 billion in White House security upgrades, with a share for the ballroom, was dropped this summer after bipartisan pushback.
This isn't about whether a ballroom is a good idea. It's about whether any president gets to reshape the People's House without asking the people's representatives. The court's answer, for now, is no. That's how it's supposed to work.
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Over 4 million people have had the same lightbulb moment.
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In other news that matters
The Iran war keeps getting more expensive. The average American household has paid $527 more in fuel costs since the conflict began in late February, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy — a number projected to reach $650 by the end of summer. That toll is set to grow: Iran's Supreme National Security Council on Saturday issued sweeping conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, demanding war reparations, the lifting of all sanctions, and full U.S. military withdrawal. Meanwhile, a Pentagon memo obtained by the Washington Post shows Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg pressing defense firms to speed up weapons production. The U.S. has used nearly all of its long-range precision missiles, and roughly 65% of interceptors for a key missile defense system are depleted. Six months in, there is no deal in sight — and the price keeps compounding.
Private prisons are profiting from people who lost their legal status. GEO Group CEO George Zoley told investors on an August 7 earnings call that ankle monitor revenue is climbing, driven partly by Haitians who lost Temporary Protected Status — a program that had shielded them from deportation — last month. In Springfield, Ohio, Haitian residents who were working legally weeks ago are now reporting to ICE offices and leaving with GPS monitors or being offered $2,600 and deportation. GEO Group and CoreCivic reported a combined $1.4 billion in quarterly revenue this spring. The ties between these companies and the administration run deep: GEO's former executive David Venturella now runs ICE, Border Czar Tom Homan was a paid GEO consultant, and a CREW analysis found Trump's own brokers have made 29 trades of private prison stocks since he took office.
The Senate passed its most significant bipartisan bill of this Congress. The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act cleared the chamber 86-11 on August 7, allowing tariffs of up to 100% on the five largest buyers of Russian oil and gas — including China and India — and placing mandatory sanctions on Putin, Russian oligarchs, and state-owned companies. The bill is named for the late Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died suddenly at 71 on July 11 from an aortic dissection, hours after returning from Kyiv. He had spent more than a year negotiating the legislation with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. His sister, Senator Darline Graham, appointed to fill his seat, told the chamber it "hits Putin where it hurts." The bill now goes to the House, which is on recess until September. Trump has signaled support.
P.S. Should courts decide what gets built at the White House? Hit Reply — one word is enough.
