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MaddowBlog-Senate Republicans ignore Trump's pleas, strip ballroom funding from key bill
The president said the White House “won’t be a very secure place” unless Congress approved public funds related to the ballroom. GOP senators didn’t care.
Trump said the White House “won’t be a very secure place†unless Congress approved public funds for his ballroom.
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-06-03T19:11:04.218Z
The plea didn’t work.
The problem wasn’t procedural; it was the simple fact that too many Senate Republicans weren’t willing to vote for his unpopular idea in an election year.
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/senate-republicans-ignore-trumps-pleas-strip-ballroom-funding-from-key-bill
A couple of weeks ago, as part of a weird press conference, Donald Trump again endorsed an effort to secure public funding for “security” measures related to his ballroom vanity project. Asked one day later what would happen if Congress didn’t approve the $1 billion in proposed funds, the president told reporters, “Then the White House won’t be a very secure place.”....
It didn’t work. Bloomberg reported:
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. In early May, however, the party’s position changed unexpectedly, and some 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 president kept lobbying, even expressing confidence that lawmakers would eventually give him what he wanted.
Whether Trump realizes this or not, however, his ability to bark orders and have others obey his directives has waned dramatically of late. He’s an unpopular incumbent trying to secure taxpayer money for an unpopular idea in an election year.
Of course, Republicans pulled the provision related to the ballroom — despite the president’s insistence that the White House “won’t be a very secure place.”
That quacking sound you hear in the distance is the sound of an increasingly lame duck.
It didn’t work. Bloomberg reported:
Senate Republicans stripped federal funds for Donald Trump’s White House ballroom from a spending package after the money triggered a backlash from lawmakers in both parties.
The removal of the funds Wednesday is a fresh setback for Trump who a day earlier Senate Republicans forced to scrap a $1.8 billion fund to pay allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by the government.
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. In early May, however, the party’s position changed unexpectedly, and some 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 president kept lobbying, even expressing confidence that lawmakers would eventually give him what he wanted.
Whether Trump realizes this or not, however, his ability to bark orders and have others obey his directives has waned dramatically of late. He’s an unpopular incumbent trying to secure taxpayer money for an unpopular idea in an election year.
Of course, Republicans pulled the provision related to the ballroom — despite the president’s insistence that the White House “won’t be a very secure place.”
That quacking sound you hear in the distance is the sound of an increasingly lame duck.