Trump Gets the Update He Feared on Ballroom

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2:29Michael Popok:We got some breaking news. Donald Trump's efforts to build his not-so-secret hospital and medical facility under the ballroom next to the White House has hit a roadblock in the form of three judges who have now been assigned for the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. One is an Obama appointee, one is a Biden appointee, and one is a Trump appointee. Those are not good odds for Donald Trump to continue his efforts to try to block Judge Leon's order to stop the ballroom from being built because it is unconstitutional, because it does not have congressional approval. And when I go over the three judges with you, you'll understand why I have a reasonably good belief that they're not going to overturn Judge Leon's decision.

3:16Michael Popok:I could be wrong, but the odds are certainly with the rule of law. You're here on Midas Touch. I'm Michael Popok. Let's get down to the ballroom and everything underneath it. Donald Trump had a reveal in a filing to Judge Leon that they're building a top secret, well, not top secret any longer, top secret military installation underneath the ballroom. In fact, In fact, it goes on to say it will include medical facilities and a hospital. 200 years of presidents, we haven't needed a hospital under the White House. But for this president, with his declining mental and physical health on full display, I guess we want it.

3:56Michael Popok:And Donald Trump's fighting hard to keep that secret hospital not so secret any longer and to keep it being built. So the panel that got assigned, three-judge panel, that's how it works for all appellate courts, really. Three-judge panel that's been assigned are the following. It's a powerhouse panel, but definitely maybe not what Donald Trump was looking for. First judge up, Judge Millett, an Obama appointee. She replaced Chief Justice John Roberts when John Roberts was elevated from that court to the United States Supreme Court. She's often been considered to be on the shortlist if a Democrat becomes the president and appoints a opening on the Supreme Court.

4:42Michael Popok:Then we have Judge Garcia, Bradley Garcia. He was appointed by Biden. Now, Garcia was an Elena Kagan clerk on the United States Supreme Court and has all the bona fides to do the right thing here related to the ballroom. The third judge is a wild card. Well, not really a wild card. Naomi Rao. Naomi Rao is a clerk. She had clerked, sorry, for Judge Thomas, Clarence Thomas, on the United States Supreme Court. And she was a law professor at the Scalia, Antonin Scalia School of Law. She is hard right. She is MAGA. In fact, she's considered to be a frontrunner if Donald Trump ever gets a pick to replace Clarence Thomas or Alito.

5:35Michael Popok:You could just see Clarence Thomas knowing that his pick replacement would be Naomi Rao, who clerked for him, stepping aside as he's pushing 80 to let her take that spot. We saw a similar move with Kennedy when Kennedy stepped off the court. So keep an eye on Naomi Rao. She frequently sides with almost entirely with Donald Trump, especially if she's got another Trumper next to her on that court. His name is Katsis. And when it's Katsis and Rayo, they generally side for Trump. Like that team blocked Chief Judge Bozberg, the chief judge of the district courts in D.C., from finding the Trump administration in criminal contempt related to removing 200 men to the torture prison of El Salvador.

6:22But Rao is outnumbered here, with Millett and Garcia in the lead. Now, they've asked for briefing about whether they, during the pendency of this appeal that could last a year, whether they will agree with Judge Leon and keep the vertical, the ballroom itself

6:42Michael Popok:from being built while the below ground bunker can continue. or they're going to continue to, or they're going to block Judge Leon's block. It's like a double negative, blocking the block, allowing the ballroom to be built. And there was briefing already, of course. And the way that the National Trust, which is the plaintiff here, is basically calling out the Trump administration and saying, building a ballroom can't be a national security concern. They make it clear. They're not objecting to the bunker. Trump wants to build a secret bunker, not so secret. Go ahead. You want to put a hospital in it?

7:25Michael Popok:I guess that's OK. But don't build the ballroom. And don't build anything down there that impacts the size and structure of the ballroom. See, Trump's now saying, well, we've already started. You know, we knocked over the East Wing in the middle of the night. We made a giant hole. well, we got to cover it with a 90 ,000 square foot ballroom, don't we? And the National Trust is saying, no, not without congressional approval. Now, Judge Leon already went through all of the laws, including the organic law that Trump was trying to rely on and said, you can't knock over the East Wing and rebuild it as a ballroom with a giant bunker underneath it under your powers.

8:06Michael Popok:That's a congressional power for approval. And Trump's response was, but we're doing it with private money. I mean, not entirely, but they're doing it with private money, and that doesn't matter. This is the oversight, the checks and balances that our Congress and our founding fathers wanted and framers wanted related to the White House. See, the Congress is the landlord. Congress owns the parks and federal land in Washington that the White House sits in, not the current occupant. And so when they briefed it to Judge Leon, the Trump side wrote with a lot of exclamation marks, they said that there's going to be a protective missile resistant steel columns and beams, drone proof roofing materials, bullet, ballistic and blast proof glass, and a bomb shelter, a hospital and medical area, a top secret military installation, and the rest.

9:04Michael Popok:And that in order to protect the president with all these security features and to protect the president, his family and the staff, they got to build the ballroom now that they made the hole. Not so fast. Magic Spoon is basically the grown up version of your favorite childhood cereal. Same fun, nostalgic taste just made for real life now. Their cereal is high protein, zero sugar, and each serving packs 12 to 14 grams of protein, zero to two grams of sugar, and four to five grams of net carbs, so it's great for anyone who's carb conscious. Plus, the original cereal line is certified gluten-free, which makes it a super simple fueling option for breakfast, a late night snack, or post-workout.

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11:11Michael Popok:Their motion exhaustively describes. Indeed, the trust hasn't even objected to that. The court's injunction simply prevents defendants from constructing the ballroom without Congress's specific and expressed approval. And as is obvious, the absence of a massive ballroom on the White House grounds has not stopped this or any other president from residing at the White House or hosting events there. Yeah. I mean, in other words, they call out there's a hole there now. There's no ballroom on top of it. Didn't stop Trump from hosting state dinners. Didn't stop Trump from hosting dignitaries or the prime minister or president of Japan or the Ukrainian president.

11:50Michael Popok:He's still, what is the hole after? Their argument on the Trump side is we got to hurry up and cover the hole with a giant ballroom. No, you don't. There's other ways to secure the hole. You know, in fact, when Donald Trump talks about it to the public, he brags about it being this big, beautiful, golden ballroom that all of his predecessors wanted. Right. Like that kept George Washington and Thomas Jefferson up at night and James Madison, the lack of a ballroom. All presidents ever wanted it. But in the middle of it, he then converted when he was on Air Force One and said, effectively, it's just a shed covering a bunker.

12:27Michael Popok:Play the clip. We just got these in from the architects. A lot of people are Talking about how beautiful the ballroom is. For 150 years, they've wanted to build a ballroom at the White House. Here's another view. This is coming from right opposite the Treasury Building. Beautiful capital. Here's a view from on the south with the porch, which is a porch, and it's also a fire stair, basically leading down to the ground. Now the military is building a big complex under the ballroom, which has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed. But the military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that's under construction, and we're doing very well.

13:14So we're ahead of schedule. That's part of it. And the ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what's being built under the military, including from drones and including from any other thing.

13:25Michael Popok:But that may be true. But that doesn't mean you get to build the ballroom. You get to build the shed. The trust is already telling you, you want to build your hospital so you don't have to go to Walter Reed and everybody see that you can't walk or talk. That's up to you, I guess. Although I don't know how that's consistent with transparency about the commander-in-chief's health. We've already seen on full display his erratic behavior, his dementia on full display as he's mishandling Iran with all of the competing social media posts. We're bombing. We're not bombing. We're going to start bombing.

14:01Michael Popok:We have a ceasefire. We don't have a ceasefire. I mean, this is an hourly thing as the stock markets gyrate, right, and convulse along with our pocketbook. So that was their first argument. The second major point, which I thought was a good one, on page 12 of their filing, and we'll put this up on Legal AF Substack for you to read, is put simply, always good when you're on page 12 and you can put something simply, the lack of a massive ballroom on the White House grounds is not a national security emergency. Its absence has not prevented any past president from residing in the White House for two centuries.

14:42Michael Popok:And demonstrably defended self-described and self-inflicted open construction site, Like you made the whole has not prevented Trump from continuing to live at the White House. You notice how they say Trump. They don't talk about the family. Because when was the last time you saw a picture of Melania there? And when was the last time you saw a picture of Barron there? Has Barron or any of the kids been there at all? You know, they're so busy trying to make money and grift off the presidency. Have they even been at the White House? Maybe for that state dinner, but I'm not even sure. They continue.

15:16Michael Popok:you. It's not prevented Trump from continuing to live at the White House since he demolished the East Wing, from hosting guests, press conferences and foreign dignitaries, or from convening meetings of the cabinet. He's even holding cabinet meetings at the White House. How insecure could it possibly be? But I love the diss on Melania there, you know, not even recognizing that the family, that he has a family that has to be worried about. And they continue, while defendants' reliance on secret evidence. See, Trump is submitting sort of secret evidence and affidavits only for courts to see about the security issues.

15:54Michael Popok:They continue, though, that they don't have to see it. Nothing in the motion on Trump's public statements suggests any emergency at all. Endavage that temporary tents might cause the White House lawn and sprinkler system, or that some materials may have to be put in storage is not the stuff of which crises are made. And then they continue on page 13. Indeed, it's difficult to believe that even defendants really think that the absence of a massive ballroom jeopardizes national security. Their own projects state the ballroom will not be completed for at least two more years. And the executive residence where the president actually lives is not a hardened national security facility either.

16:41Michael Popok:And as recently as January, defendant's position was emphatic. Below grade work will not lock in the scope of the above ground construction. Ta-da. In other words, he doesn't live in a bunker. He doesn't live in a hardened facility. He doesn't live in a black box. We'll continue to follow what happens next with that three judge panel of, say it with me, Judge Millett, Judge Garcia, and Judge Rayo for up breaking news at moving at that light speed. Come over to Legal AF YouTube channel, hit the free subscribe button and where I also do live reports on Legal AF Substack. Until my next report, I'm Michael Pope.

17:36Michael Popok:a daily roundup that I do called, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Wear Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe. Craving the coffee flavor you love, but without the caffeine? Cachava's got you covered with their newest coffee flavor. This all-in-one nutrition shake delivers bold, authentic flavor crafted from premium decaffeinated Brazilian beans with 25 grams of protein, 6 grams of fiber, greens, and so much more. Treat yourself to the flavor and nutrition your body craves.

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