Congress may not be giving President Donald Trump his $1 billion for a new White House ballroom — and he can blame Republicans.
Republican members, especially in the House, have been privately voicing their opposition to the funding both to the White House and House leaders, sources told NOTUS. Their biggest concern is that the unpopular project could further hurt Republican prospects in this year’s midterms, where Democrats are increasingly favored to make gains.
One vulnerable House Republican member told NOTUS that while “it sucks that we have to deal with this, we also aren’t going to just leave a construction site sitting there unfinished.” However, the lawmaker emphasized that GOP members don’t like the “optics of voting for ballroom funding when we have a lot more important things to do.”
“I don’t know what ends up happening there because a lot of members are unhappy with this,” the member added.
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Another vulnerable Republican House member told NOTUS that the move is “poor politics and unlikely to gain support from competitive-seat fiscal conservatives.”
Other House members are hopeful that Trump will step in and save them from having to take a tough vote by scrapping the funding proposal. The president had previously said the massive ballroom would be built using private donations, although the White House argues that remains the case and Congress would only pay for security enhancements.
“President Trump said the new ballroom would cost the taxpayers no money,” a third House Republican told NOTUS. “I have confidence that he’ll follow through on this promise to the citizens.”
With the slim House margins, Speaker Mike Johnson can’t afford to lose more than two members on a party-line vote. And as things stand now, some in Republican leadership privately acknowledge there are enough Republicans who oppose the measure to tank it.
One senior Republican House aide told NOTUS that leadership has been receiving a lot of member pushback and the ballroom funding could be in limbo.
Another senior GOP House aide said they’re hearing from members that they would support the funding for the ballroom if the White House went through the normal appropriations process. But since they’re trying to jam it through on a party-line budget reconciliation bill, it’s unlikely to happen.
“When we’re dealing with an affordability crisis, we’re really going to make members vote on a ballroom?” the senior GOP aide said. “The ads write themselves.”
Another Republican House member said that with everything else Congress should be focused on, the ballroom “doesn’t make my top 30 list of things I care about.”
Senate Republican leaders, however, are defending the push.
Majority Leader John Thune repeatedly told reporters on Monday that the money was aimed at security beyond the ballroom and argued that the three assassination attempts against Trump were reason enough to approve the funds.
“The Secret Service has a job to defend and protect the president, and I need to make sure they have the tools to do it,” Thune told reporters. “Securitizing a building in this day and age with what it takes to keep the leader of the free world safe — it’s an expensive proposition.”
The South Dakota Republican believes there’s enough support among Senate Republicans to pass the funding. However, he indicated he’s less sure about the House and would discuss the issue with Johnson in the coming days.
“I think most of our members are, as they are getting briefed on what the money’s going to be used for, are probably going to be in a good place,” Thune said.
Senators are also set to hear from Secret Service Director Sean Curran, who will address them during their weekly policy luncheon on Tuesday.
Thune also noted that $400 million in private donations will still go toward the construction of the ballroom itself.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said the word “ballroom” did not explicitly appear in the text of the bill. He also argued that funding is necessary to bolster security ahead of the World Cup.
“When you look at what’s going to happen with the World Cup coming here, and what you saw at the presidential [correspondents’ dinner], we gotta beef up the Secret Service,” Grassley said Monday.
Democrats plan to force votes on floor amendments to try to take out the ballroom security dollars and direct the funding toward health care and food assistance. It’s part of their broader campaign to paint Trump and Republicans as out of touch and failing to address economic concerns that are paramount to most voters.
“Will Republicans vote to help American families — to lower costs, to restore savage health care cuts, to roll back cost-spiking tariffs — or will they vote to fund Trump’s gaudy ballroom?” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer asked on Monday in a letter to his caucus, previewing the floor strategy.
Schumer offered a preview of a likely campaign attack, calling GOP supporters of the funding “Ballroom Republicans.”
Several Democratic senators have calculated how the $1 billion could be used for other programs and projects in their states. Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada, for example, said that about 95,000 Nevadans enrolled in the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges could have received two more years of enhanced subsidies, which at the beginning of the year.
“This is a vanity project that did not need to happen, and now Nevadans’ hard-earned money will be wasted at a time when they’re being squeezed by the spike in prices at the pump, grocery, and doctor’s office,” Rosen said in a statement.
The Senate is expected to take up the bill, which also includes over $70 billion for immigration enforcement, later this month.
The package must first undergo a review by the Senate parliamentarian to ensure that it complies with rules allowing it to pass via a simple majority vote. If the parliamentarian finds that the ballroom funding violates those rules, it will be stricken from the bill, in a win for Democrats.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the $1 billion in funding is an earmark and ought to be stripped out since earmarks generally aren’t allowed in reconciliation bills.
It’s unclear exactly what the $1 billion would be used for. Trump has said the ballroom’s construction would cost $400 million and be financed with private funds.
Senate Republicans maintain the $1 billion in their bill can be used only for “security adjustments and upgrades” relating to the project, including “above-ground and below-ground security elements.” That could include a new Secret Service annex and military infrastructure.
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