Bombshell Report Shows Trump WH Knew Ballroom Would Use Taxpayer Money Despite President’s Denials

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The Washington Post revealed on Tuesday the latest cost estimates for President Donald Trump’s highly controversial ballroom, which he promised the American people would be funded entirely by private donors.

The Post obtained a “detailed project summary prepared for the White House by the contractor” that instead showed the cost would come in at $600 million, with over half the cost being burdened by the public. Even more remarkable, the Post notes, Trump received the estimate three weeks before publicly saying the project would cost $400 million and include no public funding.

“This is taxpayer-free. We have no taxpayer putting up 10 cents,” Trump declared in the Oval Office on March 31, well after receiving the estimate.

“President Trump and generous American patriots are funding the ballroom to the tune of approximately $400 million, which will be a secure and appropriate venue for Presidents for generations to come,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle wrote in a statement to the Post.

The Post also reached out to the contractor that prepared the estimate, McLean, Virginia-based Clark Construction, which said through a spokesperson that “all project details are confidential and referred questions to the White House.”

Trump regularly discusses the ballroom at public events and has boasted that it will include military-grade infrastructure. Following the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April, Trump and his allies argued that the event further showed the security need for the president to be able to host large-scale events on the White House grounds.

In April, Trump took to Truth Social and wrote, “The White House doesn’t have a Ballroom (No Taxpayer Money!), which Presidents have desperately wanted and desired for over 150 years, but a Trump Hating, Washington, D.C. District Court Judge, a man who has gone out of his way to undermine National Security, and to make sure that this Great Gift to America gets delayed, or doesn’t get built, is attempting to prevent future Presidents and World Leaders from having a safe and secure large scale Meeting Place, or Ballroom, one with Bomb Shelters, a State of the Art Hospital and Medical Facilities, Protective Partitioning, Top Secret Military Installations, Structures, and Equipment, Protective Missile Resistant Steel, Columns, Roofs, and Beams, Drone Proof Ceilings and Roofs, Military Grade Venting, and Bullet, Ballistic, and Blast Proof Glass, which all means that no future President, living in the White House without this Ballroom, can ever be Safe and Secure at Events, Future Inaugurations, or Global Summits.”

The ballroom has been at the center of several legal and political battles in recent months, as lawsuits have been filed to stop construction, mainly arguing that appropriate steps were not taken to preserve the building’s historical legacy. Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, are split on whether or not to appropriate funds for the ballroom.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) proposed a bill to provide $400 million in taxpayer money to build the ballroom, arguing it was a national security imperative following the WHCD shooting. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, hit back at the time, saying, “President Trump indicated that the ballroom was going to be built with private donations. I think that’s the commitment that should be kept.”

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