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

[Eugene]

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

[msongs]

1. but it is gonna be paid for by donations and kickbacks nt

[scipan]

2. well goddamn. they must have gotten a lot of calls from constituents or something.

Worried about being reelected.

[Volaris]

6. Or, this is their response to him fucking over Cornyn, and very possibly turning that seat blue.

Apparently, peeps in the RSCC were in Thunes office beyond livid...

[maxsolomon]

7. The Senators, even Repuke fucks, respect the Parliamentarian's rulings.

She's not wrong.

[calimary]

3. If he still tries to shove it down our throats anyway,

let’s just make sure the next Dem in the White House gets rid of it and restores the natural vibe that used to be there.

More trees! More grass! More gardens! More greenery! It’s all REALLY restful, renewing, and generally good for the soul. And that sounds like a REALLY good vibe to spread around that whole area.

I just find it frustrating, though, that the opposition has to almost literally be dragged, physically, toward doing the right thing.

[Totally Tunsie]

4. Has his late night/early morning rage tweeting started yet?

Last edited Thu May 21, 2026, 12:16 PM - Edit history (1)

How many can he fire off per minute? He might just set a new record today!

[no_hypocrisy]

5. More like a blow to top donors as they'll be pinched to shovel in the money.

That, and/or contractors and crew build and won't be paid.

[Maru Kitteh]

8. Translation: R's in the senate need to squeeze Trump, and since

he can’t hide how utterly obsessed he is with this thing, they rightly surmise that this is the best way to squeeze his old sloppy balls. They could give a shit about the expenditure. They want him to cooperate with them for the midterms and they’re throwing road blocks in front of his pet projects until he gets in line.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. 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.