Republicans are pushing for Congress to approve President Donald Trump's ballroom at the White House following the apparent assassination attempt at a press gala Saturday night — a display of how the party is so dedicated to Trump's vanity projects members will use near-tragedies to justify them. A federal judge has held up construction of the $400 million ballroom, saying Trump broke the law by demolishing the East Wing of the White House without authorization from Congress. Some Republicans have said Congress should allocate funding for its construction, even though Trump repeatedly said the proposed ballroom, which would dwarf much of the existing White House, would be paid for entirely with private donations.
"Authorization of the ballroom should be a no-brainer," Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.) told HuffPost. "Any opposition to the ballroom has been nothing more than a partisan temper tantrum because they want to oppose it because it was Trump's idea."
The ballroom itself is remarkably unpopular — a Washington Post survey conducted last fall found just a quarter of Americans supported building it, with 61% in opposition — but it has emerged as a key focus for Trump, who has spent much of his second term focused on construction projects around Washington, D.C.
It's also far from clear if the ballroom would solve security problems. Future iterations of the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, a private event, would almost certainly not take place in the ballroom. The proposed venue is too small — it would hold roughly 1,000 guests compared to more than 2,000 in attendance on Saturday — and would present conflicts of interest for journalists who used it.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said Sunday lawmakers should approve the project and provide funding, potentially by attaching it to must-pass legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security. "I do think if we're going to do the ballroom, then let's get it done," Roy told HuffPost, adding that he was mainly frustrated by the disjointed approach Republicans have taken to funding DHS amid Democratic opposition to money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
A trio of Republican senators led by Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Monday they would introduce legislation to authorize and pay for the ballroom. It's hard to imagine many Democrats voting to approve or pay for Trump's ballroom project, which many view as a simultaneous display of Trump's corruption, autocratic tendencies and decisions to focus on self-aggrandizement rather than Americans' cost-of-living problems.
"There has been no request from the White House for major renovations to a symbol of our nation, and that's where we should be starting from. I think their arguments for why they want to bring it up now are completely ridiculous," Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) told HuffPost. Scanlon scoffed at the idea that the shooting at Saturday's correspondents' dinner showed the need for the ballroom. "This was not a government function. It's something this president has never attended in the past. The ballroom they're talking about at the White House has 900 people. This had 2,600 people," Scanlon said.
When the White House first announced the ballroom last year, security was not the reason given, but Trump immediately seized on the shooting as a new justification. "We need the ballroom. That's why Secret Service, that's why the military are demanding it. They've wanted the ballroom for 150 years," Trump claimed in remarks from the White House on Saturday night.
In a letter Sunday to the preservationist group suing over the ballroom construction, the Justice Department demanded the group drop its suit. "Yesterday's assassination attempt on President Trump proves, yet again, that the White House ballroom is essential for the safety and security of the President, his family, his cabinet, and his staff," the letter said. On Monday, the group refused to drop the suit, which is moving through the appeals process.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed the national security justification Monday. "The White House ballroom project is not just a fun project for President Trump like you will read in the media," Leavitt said. "It is actually critical for our national security that a larger security building on this complex, which is the most secure complex in the world, is built, to accommodate not only large amounts of guests but also the president, the vice president, members of the Cabinet."
Attaching the ballroom to DHS funding would not necessarily work. Republicans have been fighting among themselves about other add-ons to the bill, including new requirements for voting, and tacking on the ballroom would probably not make the bill easier to pass. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said the shooting showed the need for the ballroom, but he didn't think Congress should get involved. "He doesn't need congressional approval," Norman told HuffPost.
