President Donald Trump is squeezing Republicans to do his bidding on the ballroom.
White House officials are pushing Republicans in Congress to approve $1 billion in security enhancements for Trump’s ballroom on grounds that it would be bad optics for private donors to pay for the presidential bunker underneath, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The White House has said the ballroom itself has been paid for by donors like tech giants Apple, Meta, and Amazon, but there has been concern about these companies or rich donors effectively sponsoring a bunker.
The proposed security measures for the East Wing broadly fall into two buckets, the people say: the below-ground bunker and above-ground elements that plan to include bulletproof glass and a roof that hides a counteroffensive drone port and rocket launchers.
The bunker is under construction for now with money Congress appropriated last year for White House security, the people say, but that funding from last year is not expected to cover all of the proposed security measures that Trump wants for the construction.
If the $1 billion is not approved, Trump’s aides have warned lawmakers there may have to be cutbacks to the proposed security measures at a time that Trump has faced repeated attempts on his life, according to a Republican leadership source.
The White House does need security upgrades. For instance, while Congress installed hardened windows after the January 6 Capitol riot, the shoot-out between a gunman and secret service agents in front of the White House over the weekend revived concerns that part of the West Wing wasn’t appropriately secure.
Still, in conversations with WIRED, lawmakers have privately grumbled that the reason the White House is now in need of money for a bunker is because Trump ripped out the existing one when he bulldozed the East Wing last year without first securing funding from Congress.
As a result, the White House has now off-loaded the bunker problem of Trump’s own making onto Congress.
Trump’s aides privately acknowledge that Republicans are in a tough spot because the idea of giving the president $1 billion for a construction project while the Iran war continues and gas prices remain high remains politically toxic.
But there is little sympathy from the White House. “Republicans are just going to have to suck it up and get it done,” said one Trump aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay the White House’s thinking.
That is in large part because there are few priorities as close to Trump’s heart as his ballroom. In recent days and weeks, he has been poring over renderings and tinkering with design details for the building, say two people familiar with his level of interest.
Lately, Trump has been fixated on the White House complex’s exterior. Over the weekend, as the US passed notes back and forth with mediators to strike a preliminary deal to end the Iran war, the president was spotted inspecting the columns outside the White House residence.
Trump decided months ago that he wants Corinthian columns for the East Wing, which feature highly decorative acanthus leaves and spirals at the top of the fluted shafts, compared to the simpler spirals of Ionic columns that are on the residence.
In a statement, White House spokesperson David Ingle defended the funding as necessary for the Secret Service.
“The money in this bill will be used for a host of reasons, which include but are not limited to, hardening security for the White House complex, additional protection for protectees, the Special Operations Division, training, and extra security for high-profile events of national significance,” says Davis.
In response to lawsuits filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation challenging the legality of the construction, US district judge Richard Leon ordered a pause in April on above-ground construction until Congress authorizes the project, though Leon’s ruling has been paused pending appeal.
Republicans now have a small window to figure out whether the White House will get the full $1 billion, part of the package, or none at all.
Last week, Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough blocked Republicans from attaching money for the White House ballroom to an immigration-enforcement funding package. But even if Senate Republican leadership does find a new way to add $1 billion to the immigration-enforcement bill, they still need to get the votes (including from the senators who are happy to defy Trump after he backed their primary opponents).
“This one is not the parliamentarian’s fault is my understanding,” Republican senator John Kennedy of Louisiana told reporters last week. “It’s the votes aren’t there, plainly and simply.”
This is an edition of Hugo Lowell’s Inner Loop newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.
