There’s a concept in sports called “working the refs.” Basically, it means whining, moaning, and complaining so that you get better calls. Maybe some wheedling, maybe even some good old-fashioned palling around. The only times it’s really, truly effective, however, are when the refs are already on your side, for reasons fair or foul.
Donald Trump loves — loves — to work the refs. And in most cases, he hired them. On Friday, Trump dumped a long diatribe on Truth Social making a direct appeal to the Supreme Court over the status of his costly, ugly, and wholly unnecessary ballroom project, which was halted by a federal appeals court ruling earlier that day.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in D.C. upheld a preliminary injunction that had also gummed up construction. The original case, filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, alleged that Trump did not seek proper authorization from Congress before starting on the 90,000-square-foot, $400 million dollar renovation.
“Each President is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House,” the court’s ruling on Friday said.
The ruling is on hold for 14 days to allow Trump to appeal to the Supreme Court, which he was always going to do. But even that modicum of dissent was always bound to set Trump off, and sure enough, off he went. The ballroom, he wrote, was “totally secure” and “desperately needed.”
“The Circuit Court’s decision, which is totally wrong on the vital subject of STANDING, of which the plaintiff has none, severely jeopardizes the lives and welfare of the people who work, and will be working, at the White House — including all future Presidents of the United States, and their families, as well as the lives of all those visiting, such as Heads of State and other Dignitaries, and all Americans who wish to visit the historic, beautiful Executive Mansion,” Trump wrote.
That’s all one sentence, by the way, plucked out of many sentences of similar lengths. “This unjust decision must be overturned by the Supreme Court in its entirety,” he went on. “Thank you for your attention to this deeply important National Security matter!”
The security calculus behind Trump’s ballroom has always been shaky at best, as has the origins of the funding for it. Trump claims it’s a gift from him to the American people, but federal funding — that comes from tax dollars — was always going to be involved. But the reason this is such an issue is that Trump sees the world in terms of columns built and bricks laid: He wants a lasting, physical legacy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Or to put it more simply: He’s a diva who is obsessed with design. That in itself is far from a crime, of course, but it does make for a very funny trait in a president.
What Trump may not be accounting for is that Supreme Court justices are divas, too. And despite the fact that Trump has several hand-picked justices on the bench, they haven’t always been willing to throw calls his way for some of this middling bureaucratic fare. Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh helped Trump overturn Roe v. Wade, but they’ve also broken from his desires on several occasions. Coney Barrett, for instance, has voted against Trump’s wishes in several cases involving Trump’s criminal charges, immigration policy, and more.
The Supreme Court may not even take up the case. If they do, it could go one of two ways. Either it’s just the kind of ultimately meaningless case the sympathetic justices use to expand the scope of the executive’s power, or it’s just the kind of ultimately meaningless case that they think they can use to bolster their claims of being unbiased towards the president who made their careers.
Either way, Trump has destroyed the East Wing of the White House.
