AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

The Supreme Court today temporarily cleared the way for construction of President Trump's White House ballroom to continue while the justices consider his administration's appeal.

Chief John Roberts issued the order, blocking a lower court ruling that would have halted much of the work.

Our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, joins us now to discuss this, as well as the president's IndyCar race coming to the nation's capital this weekend.

Liz, good to see you.

Let's start with the Supreme Court here.

That order today delays a ruling that would have required all construction on the ballroom to stop as of midnight tonight.

So what happens now?

LIZ LANDERS: The Supreme Court handed on this ruling mid-afternoon today.

This is an administrative stay, and it does allow the construction to move forward for now.

It's a temporary order, and it's going to give the justices more time to weigh in on this case and this huge ballroom project.

If the Supreme Court had not issued this, the construction would have stopped at midnight today.

The ballroom construction has been the top of mind for the president for months now.

And this is being litigated as the National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued to stop this construction.

But the White House revealed last week in a legal filing that 65 percent of this ballroom project is finished now.

Crews are working 20 hours a day seven days a week.

The president, as you can imagine, celebrated this decision online in a TRUTH Social post.

And he was also asked about this as he left the White House and how it's being paid for.

Here's what he said.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: And it's all from people like me and great companies that are putting it up.

It's going to be close to $400 million.

And it's all paid for by patriots and patriotic companies, big companies.

So that's all money, no taxpayer money for the ballroom at all.

LIZ LANDERS: Amna, we should note that there are several hundred million of taxpayer money that has been set aside already to pay for the security enhancements in that military facility, the military bunker.

So, part of the ballroom is being paid for with private donations.

The military side is being paid for with taxpayer money.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, let's turn now to the IndyCar Grand Prix in Washington this weekend.

Tell us about it, what we need to know, and how difficult it was to turn downtown Washington, D.C., into a race course.

LIZ LANDERS: Well, the National Mall is being turned into this racetrack this weekend here in Washington, D.C.

Race cars are going to whiz by famous monuments, sites like the Capitol, the Smithsonian museums, other federal buildings downtown.

And 280,000 people apparently applied for the free tickets to attend this.

Organizers expect 140,000 people to turn out each day for this two-day event.

President Trump is expected to wave the green flag and is also expected to do a lap around the track in the Beast in his motorcade.

This is all in celebration for America's 250th birthday this past summer, staying on the theme there.

The track is 1.7 miles.

It's going to have seven turns.

The drivers are going to take 147 laps, which will equal about 250 miles for this race.

This has taken weeks of preparation.

If you're driving around downtown Washington, you have probably experienced the gridlock with the street closures.

One kind of amazing detail here, in fact, 227 manhole covers had to be welded down because of the torque that the Indy cars generate on the road.

AMNA NAWAZ: Incredible.

What about the cost for all of this and who is going to pay for it?

LIZ LANDERS: So race organizers say that the.

Cost of the race will be up to $35 million, making it the most expensive IndyCar race ever.

Penske is the corporation behind this.

They're paying for the bulk of this.

They also do have corporate sponsors like Boeing, Philip Morris, and Shell.

The $35 million, though, does not include security enhancements and police and other costs.

The Athletic says that Washington, D.C., received about $90 million for protection for all of these 250 events this past year, and that some of that money is going to be used to pay for this event.

And while I mentioned that the tickets for this event are free, there are hospitality suites and these high-donor tickets -- high-dollar tickets that are being sold to donors.

We got a sales deck that showed that these half suites are going for $100,000.

That includes 15 suite tickets and 15 paddock passes, as well as food, alcohol, and you're sitting in an air-conditioned area.

There are also $5,000-a-pop tickets for the so-called Champions Club for two days.

And also according to the sales deck, which was put out by Monumental Sports, which is putting on this event, there's also premium advertising opportunities like on-track branding there.

We reached out several times to the Indy 250 organizers to ask questions about these sponsorship deals and what they're paying for.

We did not hear any response back from them.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Liz, what does your reporting show about how big a role the White House played in making all of this happen?

LIZ LANDERS: Well, the president has hosted a number of these flashy events here in Washington to celebrate America's 250th birthday.

We saw the UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House in June.

We saw the Fourth of July fireworks in July and now this happening in August.

He has had two IndyCar events at the White House ahead of this to preview this race, including one where an IndyCar drove past the White House and did a pit stop while the president and an audience were watching.

Also, the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy has been heavily involved in getting this event across the finish line.

There has been a lot of negotiating that's had to happen behind the scenes cutting through red tape.

Originally, this course was planned to be on the Capitol grounds, but they couldn't get that approved, so they moved it farther down onto Pennsylvania Avenue.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, Liz Landers beginning our coverage tonight.

Liz, thank you.

LIZ LANDERS: Of course.