President Donald Trump's biggest personal obsession has become a wildly expensive "political headache" at the worst possible time, and according to a new report from The Hill, GOP senators are admitting to him behind the scenes that they cannot support it.
Trump has become more and more obsessed with building his increasingly expensive and hugely unpopular White House ballroom project since it was first announced, with the president now claiming that it is a security necessity as he continues to bring it up at seemingly every opportunity.
The ballroom's proposed budget has grown increasingly expensive, with recent estimates calling for $400 million to build and an extra $1 billion for security. Despite Trump's initial pledge that it would be entirely funded by himself and private donors, some GOP lawmakers have begun pushing for the use of tax dollars to help pay for it. Others in the party are now growing frustrated over the proposals for this, believing that siphoning over $1 billion for Trump's vanity project will tank their midterms messaging, as voters overwhelmingly signal that the cost of living is their biggest issue.
As The Hill explained on Monday, the push for the ballroom in the Senate took a major hit after the chamber's parliamentarian ruled that the GOP's "plan to provide hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for Trump’s ballroom violated the Senate’s Byrd Rule and could not pass the Senate with a simple majority," requiring 60 votes to move ahead. Democrats have celebrated this ruling and pledged to keep fighting future efforts, while Majority Leader John Thune's office said that they would simply "Redraft. Refine. [And] Resubmit" the proposal.
Privately, however, GOP lawmakers see the fight as a growing "political headache" that they cannot continue to support.
"The brewing fight is a political headache for the GOP leadership and vulnerable Republicans who will have to take tough votes on keeping any ballroom funding that survives a Byrd-Rule challenge in the budget reconciliation package," The Hill explained. "A group of Senate Republicans have privately made it clear to Thune that they don’t want to vote on providing up to $1 billion for Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom, but Thune is under pressure to deliver on one of Trump’s top priorities."
Lawmakers have expressed these frustrations to the party's leader as well, arguing that they should not be forced into "tough votes" to defend what Democrats have dubbed "Trump's palace." One anonymous Republican told The Hill they doubt the party even has the votes for the ballroom funding.
"There’s a lot of discomfort because of the amount [if funding] and it came up out of the blue and it was supposed to be privately funded,” the senator said. “Those are the kinds of questions people are asking. If it gets ‘Byrded’ out, I don’t think some people are going to cry about it."
