Republicans Pitch Plan to Fund Trump’s Ballroom After Shooting

White House ballroom construction continues. (ABACA Press)
ABACA Press
By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey

Good evening. This promises to be a busy week in the nation's capital, where King Charles III will address Congress tomorrow and Jerome Powell will hold what's expected to be his final press conference as Federal Reserve chairman on Wednesday, the same day a Senate panel votes on his successor. Congress also has plenty to deal with, including new calls to fund President Trump's $400 million White House ballroom. Here's your Monday update.

Republicans Pitch Plan to Fund Trump's Ballroom After WHCA Shooting

Saturday night's shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner has raised questions about security at such events involving the president, stoked another round of discussion about the tone and tenor of political debate in the United States and sparked renewed concern about the rise of political violence in the country. It may also have some fiscal fallout: The alleged assassination attempt has prompted several Republican lawmakers - and at least one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman - to push for federal funding to build President Trump's planned $400 million White House ballroom. It has also brought new calls to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shut down for 73 days.

Republican Sens. Katie Britt, Lindsey Graham and Eric Schmitt announced plans Monday for legislation to fund the White House ballroom. "By funding these necessary upgrades to the ballroom and the White House's security infrastructure, President Trump and future presidents will be able to host large events without having to leave the White House grounds," read a notice sent to the press. The announcement also said that the senators will call for fully funding the Department of Homeland Security, including the Secret Service.

Trump's ballroom blitz: Trump himself has used the shooting to push for his 90,000-square-foot ballroom, which has faced a storm of criticism both for its design and the process used to build it. Trump pushed ahead on the project without congressional authorization and has already torn down the East Wing of the White House to start construction, drawing the ire of preservationists and inviting legal challenges.

A federal judge late last month ordered a halt on construction of the ballroom "until Congress authorizes its completion," ruling that the president exceeded his authority by moving ahead without congressional approval.

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon wrote that it was not too late for Congress to step in. "The President may at any time go to Congress to obtain express authority to construct a ballroom and to do so with private funds," he wrote. "Indeed, Congress may even choose to appropriate funds for the ballroom, or at least decide that some other funding scheme is acceptable. Either way, Congress will thereby retain its authority over the nation's property and its oversight over the Government's spending."

An appeals court later allowed construction to continue while the legal challenge plays out.

After Saturday's shooting, Trump argued that his ballroom would be far more secure. "This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!" Trump wrote in a social media post Sunday morning. He called for the lawsuit blocking construction of the ballroom to be dropped.

A wave of GOP support: House Speaker Mike Johnson and other GOP lawmakers are backing the president's effort, with some pushing to include ballroom funding in a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

"The ballroom will be a solution for this, because it will be on the most secure compound in the world," Johnson told Fox News. "It won't have hotel rooms above it, and it will have seven-inch thick glass, for example, on the windows. So it'll be a very safe environment to do events like this. We need a place, we have needed a place like that, and the president keeps pointing it out."

Critics unswayed: Critics have charged that the new push for ballroom funding is cynical opportunism, noting that presidents wouldn't simply hole up in the White House for their time in office and that Trump's planned ballroom would not be large enough to host the correspondents' dinner or other major D.C. events and might not be expected to do so anyway.

National Trust for Historic Preservation, which brought the lawsuit challenging the ballroom, on Monday rejected a request by the Justice Department to drop its case, saying that the suit does not endanger Trump or anyone else and simply seeks to have the administration follow the law.

"We have always acknowledged the utility of a larger meeting space at the White House," Carol Quillen, the group's president and CEO, said in a statement. "Building it lawfully requires the approval of Congress, which the Administration could seek at any time."

Johnson Says Senate's DHS Funding Bill Needs to Change

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday threw a wrench into plans to fund the Department of Homeland Security, saying that the language in a bill passed unanimously by the Senate weeks ago is "problematic" and that his chamber will put forth its own version of the measure. That threatens to further delay the process of funding the department, which has been shut down since February 14.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has warned that alternative funding for DHS employee paychecks, drawn from money in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Republicans passed last year, will run out at the end of the month.

Republicans are working to fund DHS under a two-step process that is backed by President Trump but has faced stiff opposition from House conservatives. The plan calls for funding immigration enforcement agencies via a partisan reconciliation bill that bypasses the threat of a Democratic filibuster. It would fund the rest of DHS through a regular appropriations bill, which the Senate already passed via voice vote.

Johnson said that the Senate bill would "orphan" Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection by explicitly zeroing out funding for those agencies.

"It has some problematic language because it was haphazardly drafted," Johnson said. "We have a modified version that I think is going to be much better for both chambers."

A revised House bill would need to be passed by the Senate again.

Johnson's announcement is the latest in a series of twists and turns he has taken on the funding plan. He initially raged against the Senate bill after it was passed, then joined with Senate Majority Leader John Thune in announcing an agreement to proceed with the two-step plan. But with House conservatives angrily opposed to the Senate bill, Johnson never brought it to a vote as hardliners demanded to see the Senate pass the reconciliation portion of the plan.

Trump on Monday urged Republicans to come together behind the reconciliation framework. "We need all Republicans to join together and support this Budget Blueprint, which will allow us to bypass Democrat obstruction in the Senate, and fund Immigration Enforcement with only Republican Votes," Trump wrote on his social media site. "The Senate passed this Blueprint last week on Thursday morning, and now, House Republicans must UNIFY, and pass the same Blueprint to get the Bill done."

Tillis Clears Path for Warsh to Be Confirmed as Fed Chief

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said Sunday that he will no longer block the nomination of Kevin Warsh to be the next leader of the Federal Reserve, now that the Justice Department has dropped its criminal investigation of current Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Tillis's decision removes what is likely the last hurdle for Warsh's nomination to advance when the Senate Banking Committee votes on Wednesday.

"I have been clear from the start: the U.S. Attorney's Office criminal investigation into Chair Powell was a serious threat to the Fed's independence, and it needed to end before I could support Kevin Warsh's confirmation," Tillis said in a statement.

Last November, the DOJ opened an investigation into Powell's management of a renovation project at the Fed's headquarters in Washington, which has gone over budget, but the move was widely seen as an effort by the Trump administration to pressure Powell into cutting interest rates, as President Trump has repeatedly demanded. Tillis was critical of the investigation and said he would block any nominee from being confirmed until it was over, even if it meant that a new leader would be unavailable when Powell's term as chair expires on May 15.

Powell had indicated that he would remain as chair if no replacement was available, creating something of a dilemma for Trump, who wanted to see both his own handpicked replacement take over and his nemesis, the current leader, punished in some way. (Powell was originally put in place by Trump during his first administration, but the president appeared to regret that choice once the two parted ways on interest rate policy.)

Tillis said he had been reassured that the federal investigation would be reopened only if there was a criminal referral from the inspector general now looking into the cost overruns.

"With these assurances, I look forward to supporting Kevin Warsh's confirmation," Tillis said. "He is an outstanding nominee, and it is time for the Federal Reserve to move beyond this distraction and return its full attention to its mission."

Tariff Changes Could Raise Deficits by $1.1 Trillion Over 10 Years: CBO

Recent shifts in U.S. tariff policy could add more than $1 trillion to federal budget deficits over the next decade, the director of the Congressional Budget Office said Monday.

In February, the Supreme Court ruled that the tariffs President Trump imposed on trading partners around the world under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act are unconstitutional, forcing the administration to cease collecting the tariff fees and initiate a refund program for those that have already been paid. That decision will add about $2 trillion to budget deficits over 10 years, CBO Director Phillip Swagel told Bloomberg.

The Trump administration has taken steps to replace the lost revenues with tariffs imposed under different legal authority, and those measures could increase federal revenues by $800 billion to $900 billion.

Taken together, the changes mean that the deficits will be about $1.1 trillion higher than previously estimated, though the situation is dynamic and more changes in the tariff structure could be ahead. "We haven't gotten to a point at which we're comfortable making that kind of long-term" estimate, Swagel said.

Swagel also said that higher energy prices in the wake of the Iran war appear to be diluting the expected positive economic effects from the tax cuts passed by Republicans last summer, though CBO analysts are still looking at the data.

"It looks like the higher energy prices affecting households is roughly offsetting the benefits" from the tax cuts, Swagel said. "There's of course effects on business investment and effects on inflation and all that is in mix. We haven't had to do another budget update, so we haven't done the economic forecast yet that would underpin that."

Low-Cost Carriers Pitch $2.5 Billion Aid Plan

A group of low-cost carriers is reportedly asking the White House to consider creating a $2.5 billion pool of funds to help airlines cover the soaring cost of jet fuel. In exchange for financial help, the airlines would give the government warrants that could be converted to equity in the companies.

Last week, Trump said he was contemplating a bailout for Spirit Airlines, which declared bankruptcy last year and is now struggling to survive amid higher energy prices. Trump, who once ran an eponymous money-losing airline that defaulted on its debt, told reporters that he likes "having a lot of airlines, so it's competitive."

Jet fuel prices have nearly doubled since the start of the war against Iran. Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan told CNBC last week that he expects prices to remain elevated for the rest of the year.

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