April 24, 2026
A federal judge has ordered an immediate halt to construction of President Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom, ruling that Congress must authorize the project. The decision followed the release of a secret fundraising contract obtained by the watchdog group Public Citizen, which revealed a deliberately opaque mechanism designed to preserve donor anonymity and bypass conflict‑of‑interest scrutiny. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, called the scheme a “Rube Goldberg contraption.”
The donor list, officially released by the White House in October 2025 and published by the Associated Press, includes tech giants Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen Hamilton, crypto firms Coinbase and Ripple, and individuals such as Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Winklevoss twins — and Konstantin Sokolov.
It’s unclear how much each donor contributed, though Paolo Tiramani, CEO of Boxabl, publicly stated a $10 million stock donation. The White House has already demolished part of the historic East Wing, but construction is now frozen.
Tags: White House, Donald Trump, ballroom, court ruling, donor list, Konstantin Sokolov, Public Citizen
Sources: Associated Press, Bloomberg Law, Chicago Sun-Times