Donald Trump is no constitutional scholar, but he has long understood and exploited this under-recognized feature of our legal system: It’s hard to be a plaintiff. From his handling of New York real estate to the presidency, Trump does his will first and then forces others to run to the courthouse to try to stop him. Often enough, it works. Now Trump’s (literal) wrecking-ball approach will likely enable him to get away with destroying the East Wing and erecting an ostentatious ballroom despite the patent illegality of it all.

Sure, the president could have requested permits and approvals from regulatory authorities before he demolished one-third of the White House. Or he could have sought authorization from Congress — which, incidentally, his own party presently controls — to rebuild. Instead he just knocked the whole thing down, left a pile of rubble on the ground, and forced objectors to scramble into court as plaintiffs and try to undo what was already mostly done.

Trump’s conduct here is fairly straightforward in its illegality. Congress, not the president, controls spending, federal buildings, and national parks. Accordingly, Congress could have authorized the proposed demolition and renovation project — but apparently, Republican lawmakers aren’t eager to attach themselves to a vanity project supported by only 28 percent of Americans, according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post–Ipsos poll.

Instead, the president’s lawyers have tried to force the square-peg ballroom construction into an array of round-hole laws passed long ago to authorize very different types of projects. Trump’s team primarily points to a law that permits the president to authorize limited spending for White House maintenance, including “alteration” and “improvement” — which works here only if “alteration” is interpreted to mean “destruction of an entire wing and erection of a 90,000-square-foot behemoth in its place.” Unsurprisingly, a George W. Bush–appointed federal district court judge........

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