Firm nabs Trumpy $50K no-bid contract for 'urgent' work — hanging chandeliers

The Washington Sun reports a small firm with big ties received a no-bid contract for nearly $50,000, with government officials citing “unusual and compelling urgency.”

That urgency: Great Gatsby-style light fixtures for President Donald Trump’s birthday — just four of them to be exact.

“In this particular case, the environment of the 250th anniversary, the birthday, and other events [redacted],” Reports the Sun, quoting a previously unreported contracting document dated June 5. “This must happen over the weekend as these must be in place before the June anniversary events.”

The Sun said Trump’s 80th birthday fell the following Sunday — June 14 — the same night as the UFC fight on the White House lawn. Trump spent the weekend of June 6-7 away from the White House, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The General Services Administration chose Agile1Tech, a Virginia-based government construction contractor, for the installation of the four light fixtures with princely prices. The company had “recently completed the contract which created the UFC viewing/gaming room,” the contracting document states.

Officials argue that “Agile1Tech is familiar with how to brace these chandeliers in a structure that may not support such weight,” according to the document. “Given the urgency and the unique structures in the ceilings of the White House, Agile1Tech is the contractor identified to meet this urgent need. … Based on the results of market research, the government determined that a limited number of vendors were available, but none possessed the capability to properly install a complex chandelier in a historic environment.”

Agile1Tech initially billed the government $22,000 for the chandelier installations, reports the Sun, but on Aug. 27, the contract more than doubled, adding $27,600 for an “additional 3 chandeliers.”

Trump is known for Great Gatsby-themed parties at Mar-a-Lago, complete with 1920s dresses, headbands, dancers and Prohibition-era nostalgia.

Despite his investment of US taxpayer money in the celebration, the president struggled to get decent turnout at his celebration of America’s 250th birthday, which focused on promoting Trump himself rather than American history.

Aside from having Americans finance one of the biggest birthday parties of the year, critics speculated that Trump might have used the semiquincentennial to “bolster his, and his party’s, fortunes for the fall.”

And while Trump seemingly pranced amid expensive lighting, he is also catching an unwelcome October surprise right to the face, contradicting his economic pitch to American voters on the campaign trail.

Within a week of the president declaring that “prices are coming down very fast,” inflation is climbing again, and the latest numbers from his government are much worse than economists projected. The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the Consumer Price Index rose 3.7 percent year-on-year in September, up from 3.4 percent in August.