Could we paint it red white & blue?

Not so fast, Mango Mussolini. Put the crayons down.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon ruled Tuesday that construction on President Trump’s White House ballroom “must stop until Congress authorizes its completion.”

Using a notable number of exclamation points, Leon said the plaintiff, the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, is likely to succeed in their lawsuit and therefore he is granting a preliminary injunction to halt construction.

“The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!” Leon wrote.

He’s delaying enforcement for two weeks though. Sigh.

A long-time dream project for President Trump, the ballroom is designed to seat 1,000 guests and will cost at least $300 million, according to estimates by the president. It has generated massive controversy and public pushback, but recently got approval from the Commission of Fine Arts, an architectural review panel now packed with Trump allies. 

If only he could pack the whole country with Trump allies. He’s working on it, but it’s going way too slowly.

Trump responded to the ruling in a social media post complaining that the National Trust for Historic Preservation doesn’t appreciate his efforts at “sprucing up” Washington’s buildings from the White House to the Kennedy Center.

Historic preservation isn’t about “sprucing up”. Trump would “spruce up” Stonehenge and the Colosseum and the Parthenon if he could, but that wouldn’t be historic prez. Rather the opposite.