Trump Defends Cost of His White House Ballroom

(Reuters)
By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey

President Trump on Wednesday raised hopes once again that a deal to end the war with Iran could be reached soon. The White House is waiting for Tehran to respond to a one-page, 14-point memorandum of understanding, according to Axios. "Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran," Trump wrote on social media. "If they don't agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before."

Here's what else is happening.

Trump Defends Cost of His White House Ballroom

President Trump on Wednesday defended his prized White House ballroom project after Senate Republicans included $1 billion for ballroom security in their $72 billion immigration enforcement package, drawing renewed attention to the rising cost estimates for the construction and the president's repeated promises that only private donations would be used and "not one penny" of public money.

Trump's stated cost for the ballroom has ballooned from an initial $200 million to $250 million to $300 million to about $400 million - and that doesn't include the $1 billion Republicans now want to make available to the Secret Service through September 2029 "for the purposes of security adjustments and upgrades" to the ballroom project. The GOP's partisan budget reconciliation plans bar any of the funding from being used for "non-security elements" of the ballroom construction, officially referred to as the East Wing Modernization Project.

"The only reason the cost has changed is because, after deep rooted studies, it is approximately twice the size, and a far higher quality, than the original proposal, which would not have been adequate to handle the necessary events, meetings, and even future Inaugurations," Trump wrote in an early morning post on his social media site. "The original price was 200 Million Dollars, the double sized, highest quality completed project will be something less than 400 Million Dollars. It will be magnificent, safe, and secure! This was a necessary change, it was done long ago, but the Fake News failed to report it, trying to make it look like there was a cost overrun. Actually, it is coming in ahead of schedule, and under budget!"

The White House welcomed the funding provision.

"The White House applauds Congress's latest proposal in its reconciliation package which includes additional funding for security infrastructure upgrades in relation to the long overdue East Wing Modernization Project," White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement to news outlets. "Due in part to the recent assassination attempt on President Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, the proposal would provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other critical missions for the USSS."

The president and other Republicans have said the shooting last month by a would-be assassin at a White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton demonstrates the need for Trump's ballroom.

Some Republicans have proposed to have the federal government cover the cost of ballroom construction, with private donations used for related costs such as china. Those proposals met immediate opposition from Democrats, who now plan to try to remove the $1 billion funding provision from the reconciliation bill when it comes to the Senate floor.

The GOP funding proposal has given Democrats a juicy target for attacks.

"This is hypocrisy at its finest," Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote on social media in response to Trump's post. "Trump's gold-encrusted ballroom has gone from costing $200 million funded by shady donors to $1 BILLION from TAXPAYERS-snuck into the ICE bill by Senate Republicans. But Trump wants to prosecute Powell for cost overruns of the Fed's renovation."

And Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, criticized Republicans for working to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the ballroom but cutting money to help working families. "If you are mad about Republicans' shoveling $1 BILLION at Trump's ballroom-as you should be!-just remember: Trump is asking them to blow 1500x times that amount on his war budget," she wrote in a post on X.

The bottom line: Trump's ballroom was already unpopular with American voters: 56% opposed it and a mere 28% supported it, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted late last month, and that was before the new $1 billion funding proposal.

Treasury Expects $2.1 Trillion Deficit for FY 2026

Data released this week by the U.S. Treasury Department indicate that the Trump administration expects the budget deficit to hit $2.1 trillion in fiscal year 2026.

The estimate is based on quarterly refunding documents that project both Treasury borrowing needs and the funding expectations of bond market participants. The latter group expects the deficit to hit $2.0 trillion this fiscal year, which runs through September.

An analysis from the Congressional Budget Office earlier this year estimated that the 2026 deficit would hit $1.9 trillion.

Highlighting the new estimates Wednesday, Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates for deficit reduction, called on policymakers to "get our fiscal situation under control."

"Both the Treasury and the markets agree we're on course to borrow $2 trillion this year, up from the $1.8 trillion deficit we logged last year," she said in a statement. "$2 trillion deficits used to be unheard of, and then they only occurred during major recessions - it's beyond scary that $2 trillion deficits are now the norm."

Number of the Day: $4.53

The price of gasoline continues to rise, hitting a national average of $4.53 per gallon on Wednesday, according to AAA. That's the highest price since July 2022, and up more than $1.50 since the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran in late February.

Industry analysts expect prices to continue moving higher due to the war, which has choked off energy supplies from the Middle East. Although the United States imports relatively small amounts of oil from the region, the reduction in the flow of energy from the region is having worldwide effects.

Rob Smith, director of global fuel retail at S&P Global, told PBS News that upward pressure on energy prices will likely persist until the situation in the Middle East is resolved. "There's a fundamental shortfall that will exist globally or fundamental struggle to meet that demand that will drive up price," Smith said. "No matter what a government says or what any market person thinks, there is a true kind of upward pressure that's being exerted on prices every day the Strait of Hormuz is constrained. And it is still severely constrained."

Smith said that even if the war reaches a clear conclusion, it will take some time before prices start to drop significantly. "Even if there was a true and lasting resolution of the conflict, both sides agree to play nice and truly do commit to keeping Hormuz open, it will still take months to get back to what it was pre-war, if not even longer," he said. For one thing, shippers and insurers will need to believe that conditions in the Strait have returned to normal before prices can shift back. "It'll be a long time before anyone can be convinced of that," Smith said

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