In the wake of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, top Republicans want to use $400 million in taxpayer funds on President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project, arguing the new building is vital for national security. This comes despite past promises from the president the ballroom would be entirely funded by private donations.
“It’s very difficult to have a bunch of important people in the same place unless it’s really, really secure,” Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters on Monday. “The times in which we live are unusual. I’ve been up here for a while now. I’ve never felt the sense of threat that exists today.”
Graham and his GOP colleagues Sen. Eric Schmitt and Sen. Katie Britt are pushing a bill to fund the ballroom and offset costs by using customs and national parks user fees. The proposal includes building new military and Secret Service infrastructure within the ballroom complex.
Graham said the White House supports his effort, despite the president’s frequent claims that he and private donors were personally funding the entire ballroom project. The White House has previously said major tech corporations, including those that do business with the federal government and donated to Trump’s inauguration, have committed millions to funding the ballroom.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
Fellow Republicans have joined the effort to boost the ballroom, which the White House argues is more crucial than ever after the security breach at the Correspondents’ Dinner.
Sen. Rand Paul has said he will bring a bill to the floor Tuesday that moves the ballroom project forward without using additional taxpayer funds, while allowing Congress to give expedited reviews to major White House projects.
In the House, Rep. Lauren Boebert is working on companion legislation, she said Monday.
She told the MeidasTouch network that “hardly any” taxpayer money would be involved in the effort. The main obstacle remaining, she said, was an ongoing lawsuit by a preservation group against the ballroom project.
“He has it funded,” Boebert said of the president. “We just have to get it approved and get the lawsuit over with.”
The president has argued Saturday’s shooting underscores the need for a new secure, large-scale meeting space on the White House grounds.
“What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE,” Trump wrote early Sunday morning in a Truth Social post.
Influential Democrats say they will oppose efforts to fund the ballroom with taxpayer dollars.
“At this point no,” Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin told The Hill. “There’s obviously a lot of questions about how much it costs, how many people will be accommodated.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused the president of making shifting claims about the ballroom in recent months.
“He demolished the East Wing of the White House, a historic jewel of the American people, and he started to build this ballroom long before any incident,” the New York congresswoman told reporters on Monday. “He also promised the American people that this was going to be built with private dollars, and so the idea that they are trying to change the rationale for this in retrospect doesn’t quite add up.”
Others argued it would be inappropriate for the White House to host an event like the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, regardless of the facilities.
“By the way, the White House hosting the correspondents dinner in its own ballroom is arguably a violation of the First Amendment: it’s government control over press access and expression and could have a chilling effect on criticizing the president,” former Obama administration under secretary of state and TIME editor Richard Stengel wrote on X on Monday.
Sen. John Fetterman has been a rare Democratic voice in favor of the ballroom. He called on opponents of the project to end their “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and get behind the ballroom effort.
“After witnessing last night, drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom for events exactly like these,” he wrote on X on Sunday.
Outside of Congress, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued to stop construction on the ballroom, arguing the president illegally embarked on the effort without consulting Congress.
On Sunday, the Justice Department urged the group to drop the suit, citing the shooting at the Correspondents’ Dinner, but the trust plans to move ahead with the complaint.
Earlier this month, a federal appeals court ruled that construction can continue while the lawsuit plays out.
