(Photo illustration by The Bulwark / Photos: Getty, Shutterstock)
When President Donald Trump first floated his plan to build a White House ballroom, which turned out to require a complete demolition of the East Wing, he did so while promising that the new building would go up at no cost to the taxpayer. Putting aside the ethical problems entailed by allowing wealthy CEOs and corporations to donate undisclosed amounts to fund special government projects at the behest of the administration, Trump’s promise was a joke.
Senate Republicans now want to appropriate $1 billion in taxpayer funds for the project, which they are attempting to do by tucking the provision into a new proposal to spend even more money on the president’s mass deportation effort.
The bill, which Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released Monday night, notes that the $1 billion is meant “for the purposes of security adjustments and upgrades, including within the perimeter fence of the White House Compound to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to the East Wing Modernization Project, including above-ground and below-ground security features.”
