Trump's $1B ballroom funding on the verge of being 'ejected' by his own party

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Raw Story

May 19, 2026 9:35PM ET


Funding for President Donald Trump's pricey White House ballroom is on the verge of being "ejected" from his own party's immigration enforcement bill, according to a new report.

The White House ballroom project has been touted as a $400 million privately funded build, though Republicans have also pushed a separate $1 billion taxpayer-funded security request tied to the broader East Wing modernization project that includes the ballroom.

Politico reported late Tuesday that the ballroom is "on the brink of being ejected" from the GOP's immigration legislation

"Four Republican senators have raised public objections to spending taxpayer money on the project, possibly enough to kill it given the broad Democratic opposition. A larger group of Republicans is privately opposed to the funding, according to five people granted anonymity to disclose internal deliberations," the report said.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/trump-ballroom-2676916736/

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Link to Politico REPORT - https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/19/senate-ballroom-funding-ditch-00928837

[C_U_L8R]

1. And take the stupid arch too.

[Karma13612]

2. Elections have consequences-

Trump just released a few of his Senators to do exactly as they want now that they lost their primary bids.

No fear of angering donors, the MAGA base, or Trump.

Bring it on…..

[twodogsbarking]

3. How 'bout a circus tent. Clowns need tents.

[twodogsbarking]

4. The cost is peanuts compared to the amount of money Trump has stolen or wasted.

[Bayard]

5. Privately opposed,

Doesn't mean diddly. Stand by what principles you have.

[FakeNoose]

6. And to think just a few months ago, it was a $300million ballroom

... and it was all paid for by GOP donors. Let's just cut the crap and end this now.

[Eugene]

7. Ballroom won't be funded after Senate GOP drops $1 billion Trump security request

Ballroom won’t be funded after Senate GOP drops $1 billion Trump security request (Politico)

Multiple Republican senators objected to sending taxpayer dollars to the president’s East Wing revamp.

In a blow to the White House, Senate Republicans will remove a $1 billion Secret Service funding request that would help President Donald Trump’s ballroom project from their immigration enforcement funding bill amid internal objections.

“We were told that the ballroom money is out,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters after a GOP lunch meeting Wednesday, adding he’d “like to read the text.”

The decision to omit the security funding came after twin blows: Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled over the weekend that the provision didn’t comply with the strict rules governing what Republicans can put in their filibuster-skirting bill because it funded activities outside of the Judiciary Committee’s jurisdiction.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/20/ballroom-security-funding-reconciliation-00930193

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. MaddowBlog-Republicans start walking away from own plan to spend tax dollars on Trump's ballroom

“The votes are not there,” one key GOP senator reluctantly conceded. “We will lose.”

As Republicans walk away from their own plan to spend tax dollars on the ballroom, remember:

This has nothing to do with procedural hurdles and everything to do with the fact that too many GOP senators don’t want to vote for this wildly unpopular idea in an election year.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-05-20T21:31:58.906Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/republicans-start-walking-away-from-own-plan-to-spend-tax-dollars-on-trumps-ballroom

On Tuesday, as part of a weird press conference, Donald Trump again endorsed a Republican effort to secure public funding for “security” measures related to his ballroom vanity project. A day later, a reporter asked him whether he was concerned about Congress giving up on the proposal. He said he was not.

Hours later, it became clear that he should have been. The New York Times reported:

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said [the taxpayer money] for President Trump’s White House ballroom project has been stripped from a filibuster-proof budget bill because there were not sufficient Republican votes to support the funding. “We’re back to square one,” he said, adding: “The votes are not there. We will lose.”

The entire trajectory of this fight has been bizarre for a while. For months, Republican officials in the White House and on Capitol Hill assured the public that the ballroom project would be privately financed. Two weeks ago, however, the party’s position changed unexpectedly, and GOP senators unveiled a package to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, which included a $1 billion provision that, if approved, would spend taxpayer dollars related to the ballroom.

The proposal was expected advance through the budget reconciliation process, which meant Republicans could circumvent the 60-vote threshold and pass the bill with a simple majority.

Roadblocks quickly emerged. In order for a reconciliation bill to advance, it has to meet a series of stringent conditions, which in this case proved to be a problem: The Senate’s nonpartisan parliamentarian informed GOP leaders over the weekend that the money for the ballroom would either have to be changed significantly or removed altogether....

To be sure, there’s still some fluidity to the process. But as things stand, according to a key member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Republicans are walking away from their own unpopular idea. Watch this space.