President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom started last summer as a $200 million project that he repeatedly promised would be paid by private donations. The project has now grown, as has the price tag — to at least $1 billion — and Republicans are pushing hard to get the taxpayers to foot the bill.
“In case this isn’t obvious,” MS NOW reported on Tuesday, “the White House boasted last summer that the price tag for the ballroom would be $200 million, and every penny would come from private donations. By October, the price tag had grown to $250 million. Soon after, it was $300 million. Late last year, it was up to $400 million — though, again, the official line was that American taxpayers wouldn’t be on the hook for the costs at all, even as the White House went out of its way to hide the identities of donors.”
Then the calculus changed entirely.
Late last month, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was among the first Republicans to float the idea of taxpayers funding the ballroom, announcing legislation to foot the bill — to the tune of $400 million. The status of that bill is unclear, and it may not have been filed yet.
Trump used the alleged assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to insist that presidents need a safe space, and claimed that having a “Militarily Top Secret Ballroom” with “every highest level security feature there is” would have prevented the attack.
On Monday, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) announced that the ballroom project expenditure would become part of a reconciliation bill — that’s when it appears the overall price tag jumped to at least $1 billion.
The Daily Beast reports that Grassley’s reconciliation package earmarks the $1 billion for “security adjustments and upgrades” linked to the ballroom project, including “above-ground and below-ground security features” of the East Wing Modernization Project.
As The Daily Beast suggests, it appears the $1 billion price tag is technically not for the above-ground ballroom itself, but for the security upgrades above and below ground that Trump has publicly touted.
“In Mr. Trump’s telling,” The New York Times reported last month, “the bunker will have bomb shelters and ‘very major medical facilities,’ including a hospital. It will have the latest secure communication methods and defenses against bioweapons.”
Republicans are split on the ballroom being funded by taxpayers, NBC News has reported, but most Democrats are opposed.
Meanwhile, Senator Grassley’s decision to include the $1 billion cost in a reconciliation package brings with it a flaw that could kill the project — or become fodder for political ads Democrats may want to run.
“Just flagging that now everyone gets an up or down vote on the ballroom!” U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) wrote on Tuesday.
“Under budget reconciliation,” Bloomberg’s Steven Dennis explained, “a motion to strike is always in order. So, yes, Democrats can force a vote striking funding for Trump’s ballroom.”
As of late last year, $350 million in private donations for the ballroom have been raised. The president has not indicated if those funds will be used, held, or returned to their respective donors.
Americans already oppose the ballroom by a two-to-one margin — before they were asked to pay for it. By folding the $1 billion into a reconciliation package, Republicans handed Democrats the right to force a floor vote. Trump’s team promised the ballroom wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime. Now every senator will have to say whether they agree.