WASHINGTON (AP) — Shouting over the banging and clanging sounds from heavy construction equipment, President Donald Trump on Tuesday gave a group of reporters a closer look at the construction for the White House ballroom he's building on the site of the former East Wing to mount a defense for the project that has hit a speed bump in Congress.
Watch the president's remarks in the player above.
The administration has asked for $1 billion from taxpayers for security additions on the White House campus, including for the ballroom. But the Senate parliamentarian ruled the proposal could not be included in a bill to fund immigrant enforcement agencies for three years, and several Republican lawmakers have balked at the price tag in an election year where voters are grappling with gasoline, grocery and other prices spurred to new heights by the Iran war and the disruption in oil supplies.
So Trump, ever the pitchman, surprised White House reporters by bringing them to a platform overlooking the construction site on a hot and breezy morning as workers in hard hats and fluorescent yellow vests milled about below.
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