And does he ever! The Senate is (mostly) pissed off about something he’s trying to pull off, and he’s getting it from both sides. There are times when across-the-aisle doesn’t matter, especially about this, and yes, getting called out on something he’s already been blocked on once. It’s going to be quite informative when this really blows up. Thank you, Raw Story:
Senators from both parties are accusing President Donald Trump of secretly tapping government funds for his White House ballroom after Congress refused to write him a check. The White House Office of Management and Budget quietly moved $352 million last week from a Secret Service fund — money the law restricts to personnel, training, programming, and technology — and labeled it “White House Security Measures.” Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle suspect it is headed straight for the ballroom.
That certainly looks to be heading straight to the ballroom. White House Security Measures. Yea no. Trump hasn’t said a word about security at the White House at any point in either term. Besides that, the money is for the Secret Service. They have a thankless job, so it belongs to them for what they need, not some stupid, ugly ballroom with an excessive amount of things that are going below ground. He keeps adding to that list, too.
Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which supplied the cash, bars the use of those funds for construction. That has not stopped the suspicion from building. “That’s a big problem,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told NOTUS. “On its face, it doesn’t sound right.” “I don’t know whether it’s the ballroom, but it sounds like the ballroom,” added Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), a senior appropriator. “I think there’s been more and more credible coverage that President Trump was just flat out lying when he said the taxpayers will not pay a dime for his ballroom,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said. “I think he is now trying to find ways to funnel public money into it.”
There will be one helluva outcry if he gets anything from public money. Last we knew, everyone hated the thing, and those feelings haven’t changed. We don’t need a ballroom. We needed the East Wing. There’s a thing called maintenance and restoration. It was just torn down. My apologies. Getting back on track now. Y’know, we should have figured it was BS since Trump is (was) so good at lying and breaking promises. Heh. Promises or laws, he ignores both. ETTD. Maybe that will work for the ballroom.
Trump spent more than a year insisting the project was “taxpayer-free.” As recently as March 31, he told reporters in the Oval Office, “We have no taxpayer putting up 10 cents” — weeks after The Washington Post reported that contractor Clark Construction had already handed the White House a $600 million cost estimate showing that more than half the tab would fall on the public. Congress tried and failed to pass $1 billion in direct funding for ballroom security earlier this year. When that collapsed, the White House found a new pool of money — and an OMB official raised the ballroom unprompted when asked to explain the transfer. Senators said they are demanding more details about exactly where the $352 million will go.
There’s going to be a lot of angry people in the near future. What do you think? Say … a 99% chance it’s going to the [expletive] ballroom? Or is it 100%? And there is apparently no way to stop our dollars from having to pay for his ridiculous, oversized, gaudy, ugly ballroom. It will be such a relief to get him out of the office. The amount of work needed to fix everything he screwed up is going to be immense. And I hope the ballroom never gets built. 999 people. Feh.
See you tomorrow!
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