A person attends the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) USA 2026 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, in Grapevine, Texas, U.S., March 27, 2026. REUTERS Daniel Cole
Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson is no friend of President Donald Trump. He also is no friend to the Republican Party that currently serves at Trump’s beck and call, shields him from legal consequences and enable his agenda.
This is why Wilson says he 100 percent wants Republicans to pass funding for Trump’s $1 billion ballroom and crow about their decision every day up until the November midterms.
“I want Republicans to vote for the ballroom,” Wilson told MS NOW anchor Katy Tur. “I want them to go out and cheerlead for the ballroom every day. I wanted to put that front and center because that is what they care about, and that is what Trump cares about. And the ads write themselves. You've got farmers in rural districts who are facing record farm bankruptcies and unbelievably high fuel costs. And I think that farmer looking straight to the camera saying, ‘we're going to lose the farm, we're going bankrupt, but at least I get to pay for a ballroom with my taxes.’ The suburban mom at the grocery store at the gas pump gets to say ‘at least I get to pay for a ballroom. I can't really afford to go to work, but I'm going to pay for the ballroom.’”
“I want them to do this,” insisted Wilson, founder of the Lincoln Project. “This is one of the stupidest political traps I've ever seen somebody walk themselves into. And the GOP, while they're nervous and leaking to Punchbowl News and saying ‘oh, we don't love this [ballroom] behind the scenes, they're still not going to publicly defy Trump. And if they if they cast this vote, it is going to get hung around their necks like a dead animal and it is going to stink all the way to election.”
Wilson showed particular venom for Trump voters who told reporters they are still supporting the president despite rising gas prices, an unpopular war in Iran and multiple broken promises, but he said the number of those recalcitrant supporters is shrinking every day.
“That clip you played in the beginning of the of the segment, he represents a part of the Republican Party that loves Trump and will always love Trump. But that is a shrinking part of the Republican base. And each week that goes by with this war, these tariffs and everything else, Trump's support is peeling away like layers of an onion.”