Surprise! Taxpayers Were Always Going to Foot the Bill for Trump's Ballroom, Records Reveal

Pickpockets

The Washington Post reports that the White House knew the president's vanity project would require federal funding

Donald Trump has claimed that the massive ballroom he’s affixing to the White House wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime. Unsurprisingly, the president seems to have been lying through his teeth since the beginning.

According to documents obtained by The Washington Post, the White House has known for months that the ballroom would likely cost much more than the $200 million he initially broadcast in July of last year, and that taxpayers would be on the hook for a significant portion of the construction costs.

A project summary obtained by the Post shows that in early March, the White House was presented a quote from Clark Construction — the contractor tapped to lead the project — calculating a $600 million price tag for the project, with taxpayers expected to shoulder about half of the construction costs. Clark priced in an expected $293 million to be obtained from “private sources,” and listed that it expected to receive $155 million from the Secret Service, and $149 million from the White House Military Office. In late March, Trump publicly stated that the ballroom would cost $400 million — doubling his 2025 estimate of $200 million — and be “taxpayer-free.”