Trump asks Supreme Court to let White House resume ballroom construction work

Washington: President Donald Trump's administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the White House to resume construction on its $400 million ballroom project while it appeals a lower court's order to halt the work.

Trump's solicitor general on Friday petitioned the high court to suspend last week's decision by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The divided panel ruled last week Trump must stop the White House ballroom's construction because Congress has not approved the project. The panel's majority said Trump doesn't have the unilateral authority to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom where the White House's East Wing stood before he ordered its demolition last fall.