President Donald Trump appears to be rejecting offers from reliable allies and is instead lining up behind a bill from frequent critic Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to expedite the construction of his White House ballroom.
On Monday, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Katie Britt (R-AL), and Eric Schmitt (R-MO) announced plans to introduce legislation that would funnel $400 million in federal funds toward Trump’s ballroom, despite the president’s frequent reassurances that the construction project would be entirely privately funded.
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The White House declined to say if the president supported the measure, with one senior White House official telling the Washington Examiner Tuesday that, to their knowledge, Trump had not been briefed on the proposal.
But Tuesday afternoon, Trump himself reposted a statement from Paul, whom the president routinely attacks for voting against his agenda, announcing plans to put forward his own ballroom bill that maintained the president’s private funding pledge.
“As Chairman of [the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee] & a member of the National Capitol Planning Commission, I’ve reviewed & supported the new White House ballroom,” Paul wrote in the statement Trump shared. “My bill moves the project forward without extra taxpayer funds & ensures Congress can expedite review of major White House projects.”
“The safety and security plans of the Ballroom are going to be the most state of the art and most secure Ballroom facility anywhere in the world, regardless of the events that took place at the WHCD,” a White House spokesperson wrote in a statement.
The offices of Graham, Britt, and Schmitt declined to comment on Trump’s apparent support of Paul’s proposal.
Republican lawmakers have been quick to echo Trump’s claims that the ballroom is an essential national security project in the wake of Saturday’s assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, though White House officials additionally told the Washington Examiner that Saturday’s attack has not altered the ballroom’s existing blueprint or security measures.
“I’m building a safe ballroom, and one of the reasons I’m building it is exactly what happened last night,” the president stated during a Sunday interview on 60 Minutes. “And that ballroom’s being built on the safest piece of property in this country — probably one of the safest pieces of land in the world.”
Starting last year, Trump’s plans for the White House ballroom have steadily grown, both in terms of the structure’s planned footprint and total cost. Despite his original plans, Trump demolished the White House’s East Wing last year to make way for the new building, which will also feature a below-ground security bunker. The president most recently estimated that the project will cost somewhere between $300 million and $400 million. So far, roughly 40 firms have donated to the project, including Amazon, Apple, Booz Allen Hamilton, Coinbase, Google, Lockheed Martin, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Palantir, and Ripple Labs.
The White House declined Tuesday to say how much has been raised for the project, though officials say that fundraising is being headed by the Trust for the National Mall.
Still, Trump critics have resorted to the legal system to seek to halt construction, including a lawsuit filed late last year by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The trust rejected the Justice Department’s weekend request to drop the lawsuit in light of the WHCA dinner attack.
“We are not planning to voluntarily dismiss our lawsuit, which endangers no one and which respectfully asks the Administration to follow the law,” National Trust President and CEO Carol Quillen said in a statement on Monday.
The Justice Department responded in kind Monday evening with another filing pressing a federal judge to lift the order halting ballroom construction, accusing the National Trust of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
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“‘The National Trust for Historic Preservation’ is a beautiful name, but even their name is FAKE because when they add the words ‘in the United States’ to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it makes it sound like a Government Agency, which it is not,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in the motion. “After the Saturday night attempted assassination, which could have never taken place in the new facility, reasonable minds can no longer differ — The injunction must be dissolved.”
“Saturday’s narrow miss — which marks the third assassination attempt on President Trump since 2024 — confirms what should have been obvious: Presidents need a secure space for large events, that currently does not exist in Washington, D.C., and this court’s injunction stalling this Project cannot defensibly continue, for the sake of the safety of President Trump, future Presidents, and their families, Cabinets, and staff,” Blanche argued.
Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this report.
