WASHINGTON, D.C. — Donald Trump’s wildly unpopular vanity White House Ballroom project has grown more shrouded in conflicts of interest since the East Wing was demolished, with over $50 billion in new and increased government contracts flowing to corporate ballroom donors over the last six months, according to a new Public Citizen report called Ballroom Billions.
The Public Citizen analysis shows that over half of the corporate donors to the ballroom project from a wide range of industries, including big names like Amazon, Palantir, NextEra Energy, and Lockheed Martin, have received more government contract funding since donating to the ballroom and being feted by Trump at a gluttonous White House banquet dinner last October.
The White House disclosed a list of 21 corporate donors to the $400 million ballroom project, but it has not revealed how much they each contributed. News outlets have identified 6 more corporate ballroom donors, for a total of 27 corporate donors. An additional 15 individual and family foundation ballroom donors have also been disclosed. This is likely not the complete list, since the White House signed a secret ballroom funding agreement – obtained by Public Citizen via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit – that permits ballroom donors to remain anonymous.
