U..S. President Donald Trump shows images of the concept at the site of ongoing construction of the planned White House ballroom in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 19, 2026.
There has been much debate lately over President Donald Trump’s ballroom construction project, which he started under the assertion that its $400 million price tag would be covered by private donors, only to more recently up the cost to $1 billion, which would be paid by taxpayers. Then on Monday, Senate Republicans lost their bid to approve a security spending package for the ballroom in the face of Democratic opposition. On Wednesday, one Democratic Senator revealed how they did it.
In a video posted to X with the text, “Bye-Bye Billionaire Ballroom,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (R-RI) explained how the reconciliation process that tanked the funding package unfolded.
“In order to get the funding through the reconciliation process, the Republicans had to give reconciliation instructions to all the relevant committees,” he explained. “Well, I’m the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee. Martin Heinrich is the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. And guess what? The White House is a public building under the jurisdiction of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and it’s in a national park under the jurisdiction of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. And the Republicans managed not to give reconciliation instructions to either committee.”
This allowed Democratic lawyers to argue that the reconciliation was “defective” and that money couldn’t be allocated to the project because there was “no proper instruction allowing money to go to the ballroom.”
“We won that argument. It was well prepared and well delivered, and it took only one day for the parliamentarian to decide that in fact, the ballroom being added to the reconciliation bill was defective, and it had to fall. So bye-bye billionaire ballroom.”
Trump was not happy with this outcome. On Wednesday, he demanded that Senate Republicans fire the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough in retaliation for her decision.
“Shockingly, Republicans have kept the very important position of ‘Parliamentarian’ in the hands of a woman, Elizabeth MacDonough, who was appointed, long ago, by Barack Hussein Obama and a vicious Lunatic known as Senator Harry Reid, who ran the Senate for the Dumocrats with an ‘iron fist,’” posted the president in a lengthy Truth Social tirade. “Over the years, she has been brutal to Republicans, but not so to the Dumocrats — So why has she not been replaced?”
As Politico notes, “Obama did not have a say in MacDonough’s appointment in 2012.”
“That’s, I guess, his opinion,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) when asked about Trump’s demand.
According to Politico, “The decision was a significant setback for Republicans, who had hoped to pass the funding with a simple majority vote as part of a broader immigration and border security package. MacDonough determined that the provision requires 60 votes in the Senate, all but dooming the idea.”
In related news, efforts appear to be ramping up to kill funding for another of Trump’s highly criticized projects: the creation of a $1.8 billion “slush fund” that critics say will give taxpayer dollars to those convicted of crimes during the January 6 insurrection, as well as other Trump loyalists.
Even Republicans — who rarely oppose the president’s actions — have been troubled by the fund. Speaking on the matter on Wednesday, Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) was blunt about the next step: “We’re gonna kill it.”