Donald J. Trump , the Real Estate guy , tears down a wing of the American home/office for its President ….
Installs ‘his’ people to give him the ok….
Said ‘NO” taxpayer money involved?
NOW?
We find out OUR taxpayer Money WILL be used to make Donald Happy?
Hundreds of Millions….
.
Records show the price tag for the White House ballroom is rising to $600 million, with half of the costs funded by taxpayer dollars, according to a new report from The Washington Post.
The news comes months after President Trump said private donors would pay for the $400 million initiative to construct a new ballroom in place of the East Wing.
At the end of March, Trump told reporters “We’re donating a building that’s approximately $400 million.”
But records detailing the White House ballroom construction being led by the Virginia based firm, Clark Construction, show that in March of 2025, officials planned to derive $293 million from “private sources” to fund the project while $155 million would be pooled from Secret Service funds, $149 million from the White House Military Office and $3 million from the Executive Residence, according to the Washington Post.
The latter three sources are funded by taxpayer dollars….
…
Trump has repeatedly referred to the project as a “gift” to the American public.
But the ballroom has been controversial with members of Congress, in part because of the sudden destruction of the East Wing to make way for it. Lawmakers in both parties have suggested they do not want to see tax money going toward the project.
Last October, a slate of private companies including Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Meta Platforms, Apple, Google, Coinbase, Comcast, T-Mobile, the Adelson Family Foundation and crypto investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss agreed to back the project through donations to the Trust for the National Mall, a 501(c)3 group funding the ballroom.
This has raised concerns about corruption as corporate backers of the ballroom could also have federal contracts worth millions of dollars in revenue from the government.
Trump has discussed expansions of the project, including underground military bunker, security enhancements and expanded the seating space from 650 guests to 999 people, that could drive up its cost.
The president also requested $1 billion from Congress to upgrade ballroom security through a budget reconciliation bill after Trump faced an assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ dinner hosted annually at the Washington Hilton.
Senators ultimately rejected the measure with some pointing to the president’s comments in March, committing to using only private donors for the ballroom construction.
“President Trump indicated that the ballroom was going to be built with private donations,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) previously told The Post…..
Judge asks the Kennedy Center to explain tarps covering the building
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper also pressed the center to answer the core question about its future: Will it stay open during two years of renovations?
June 24, 2026 at 11:42 a.m. EDT
Pilgrims have journeyed to the Kennedy Center over the past week and a half hoping to see proof that President Donald Trump’s name is gone from the building’s exterior. They’ve all left frustrated, many with the same question: Why is the tarp-covered scaffolding still up, 11 days after crews used it to take Trump’s name down?
Now a federal judge is asking the same thing — and has directed the Kennedy Center to give an answer.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper on Wednesday ordered the center’s board of trustees to file updates about the tarp-covered scaffolding and the center’s plans for maintaining operations and arts programming after July 5, the date it had intended to close for two years of renovations.
On May 29, Cooper ruled that the Trump-aligned trustees had illegally voted to rename the center, which Congress had exclusively named after the assassinated President John F. Kennedy, and ordered Trump’s name be erased from official materials within two weeks. On June 12, a 14-member crew erected scaffolding to comply with the deadline. The workers missed it, taking down the letters around 3 a.m. on June 13, and the center’s lawyers confirmed in a court filing later that morning that the work was done.
But the center left the scaffolding and tarps in place. Barricades staffed by security guards have kept people from approaching and blocked any view of the exterior….
by Jonathan Edwards in The Washington Post