Happy Monday! The Trump administration said today that it is temporarily pausing a controversial border construction project in Texas's Big Bend National Park after bipartisan backlash from critics who call the work expensive, unnecessary and damaging to one of America's natural treasures. "CBP is pausing all construction activity in Big Bend National Park while I visit and conduct a personal, on-the-ground evaluation," Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said on X. "Now over the next couple of days, I will join a small team to evaluate the terrain and listen to local leadership, community members and stakeholders to ensure that we secure our borders while simultaneously protecting BBNP for generations to come."
Here's what else is happening.
Trump Has Legal Authority to Build His Ballroom, Blanche Says
Attorney General Todd Blanche insists that President Trump doesn't need congressional approval for his White House ballroom project.
The ongoing battle over the ballroom isn't just about whether the president and the nation need a glitzy new event space or whether the 90,000-square-foot plans will aesthetically overpower the roughly 55,000-square-foot White House residence.
It's not only about national security needs, either, given that the federal judges who have ruled that aboveground work at the site must stop have also allowed underground construction of military and medical facilities to continue.
At its core, the fight over the ballroom project is about presidential authority and Congress's power of the purse.
A federal appeals court ruled in a 2-1 decision earlier this month that "the Constitution assigns Congress-not the Executive-the responsibility to decide whether proposed changes to the physical design of the White House may proceed, even where those changes are said to serve security interests." It added: "Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help."
The Trump administration insists that's wrong. It continues to argue that the president has full authority to renovate the White House - and to use congressionally appropriated funds for the care, maintenance and improvement of the executive residence.
The administration asserted that on Friday when it asked the Supreme Court to step in and allow construction to continue before a halt ordered by a lower court takes effect on August 21. Then on Sunday, Blanche claimed that Trump has the authority to move ahead with the project.
In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," host Shannon Bream read from the appeals court ruling.
"Why not just go to Congress" she asked.
"We don't believe we have to go Congress," Blanche responded. "We believe Congress has already given us the authority to do what we're doing. Many presidents have done a tremendous amount of work to the White House, as they should, and Congress has authorized them to do so. So we have a fundamental disagreement with those two judges [on the appeals court]."
Blanche went on to say that Trump "has said for many months now, almost a year, that he has the authority to do this, and he said that because he absolutely does have the authority to do this. And we're hopeful that the Supreme Court recognizes that so we can get the ballroom finished as soon as possible."
Money for J6 rioters? In a separate "Meet the Press" interview Sunday, Blanche, who had been Trump's personal attorney, refused to pledge that his Justice Department would be independent from the president and the White House.
"No, I'm not going to pledge that. And no attorney general should ever pledge that," Blanche told host Kristen Welker.
In his Fox News interview, Blanche insisted that Trump "loves disagreement" and would expect to have the attorney general tell him when he differs on an issue.
Blanche also responded to concerns that the Justice Department's $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund isn't truly dead, or that the administration might still look to use federal funds to pay rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Blanche reiterated that he and Trump both believe that the Justice Department was weaponized against January 6 rioters and other Americans under the Biden administration.
"The Department of Justice over the last several years was weaponized against some people, but we are not using the anti-weaponization fund to compensate. To the extent that anybody in this country feels that a tort has been committed against them by the government, they can sue and that's what Democrats said all along," Blanche said.
The administration's petition to the Supreme Court also says that the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued to stop the ballroom project, does not have the legal standing to challenge the construction. It also argues that the project must be completed for national security reasons.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation responded to the administration's emergency application to the Supreme Court by accusing the administration of ignoring judges and "actively attempting to outrun the courts by accelerating construction." It noted in a statement that the government's court filing "announced it would be installing another one million pounds of rebar and pouring another 3,000 cubic yards of concrete in just the next week alone."
"The Administration's transparent efforts to evade the rule of law, frustrate judicial review, and limit the availability of meaningful relief in the courts must stop here," the group said.
The bottom line: The legal battle will likely come to a head soon, but construction on the project is rapidly progressing as the courts consider the case.
Number of the Day: 57
President Trump was wealthy before he entered politics and he's enriched himself and his family further while in the White House, reporting an estimated $2.2 billion in income for 2025. But the president has also packed his administration with wealthy people - and done so to a far greater level than his predecessors, according to a new analysis.
In a report released today, nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen finds that 57 individuals in the Trump administration are worth as much as $100 million or more. That doesn't include Trump.
Financial disclosure requirements for federal employees allow them to declare asset values in a range, meaning that the analysis can't be extremely precise about the wealth of administration officials - but at least 31 of these 57 wealthy individuals have declared assets of $100 million or more. Eight of them are billionaires.
Forty of the 57 individuals are leading or in senior positions at federal agencies and organizations, including the Treasury, Commerce and Education Departments as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission, Social Security Administration, Small Business Administration and Office of Personnel Management. The other 17 are U.S ambassadors. And 30 of the 57 individuals provided more than $65 million in combined campaign contributions to Trump and related political committees during the 2024 election cycle, Public Citizen says.
While it's not unusual for wealthy Americans to have sizable political influence or for presidents to reward rich backers and other associates with ambassadorships, Public Citizen says that the number of ultra-millionaires and billionaires in the Trump administration stands out and can be problematic. The administrations of George W. Bush and Joe Biden each included five individuals worth $100 million or more. The Obama administration had three, Public Citizen says.
"This disconnect between the billionaires and ultra-millionaires running the government under Donald Trump's administration and average day Americans has ripple effects throughout the government and across the entire nation," Public Citizen argues in its report, written by Douglas S. Pasternak. "What seems to be a pay to play political extravaganza in the Trump administration has never been clearer, and the financial disparity between government officials and the general public has never been greater than in Donald J. Trump's presidency. The enormous wealth of Trump administration officials raises questions about whether they are driven by their sweeping personal financial interests or the interests of the American public at large which they have an obligation to serve."
Fiscal News Roundup
- The 60-Day Deadline for an Iran Peace Deal Is Expiring. Here's Where Things Stand – Associated Press
- Trump Orders Pentagon to Scale Back Joint Exercises With South Korea – Associated Press
- Trump Says White House Needs 'Military Complex' as Courts Block His Ballroom – Washington Post
- Blanche Won't Pledge DOJ Independence From Trump – Axios
- Federal Job Cuts Are Making Wildfires Harder to Fight – New York Times
- Democrats Lead Republicans on Economy Heading Into Midterms: Poll – The Hill
- 23 Percent of Republicans Say They're Worse Off Since Second Trump Term Began: Survey – The Hill
- Trump Races to Prepare for New Strains of Deadly Viruses After Cutting Biosecurity Experts – Washington Post
- Cassidy Predicts Trump's Vaccine Order Will Increase Insurance Costs – The Hill
- Paramount Asks States to Shoulder Costs of Delaying Warner Bros. Deal – New York Times
- Supreme Court Turns Down Trump's Last-Ditch Bid to Overturn $5M Verdict in E. Jean Carroll Suit – Politico
Views and Analysis
- The 2030s Will Bring a Fiscal Cliff. Here's How It Got So Steep. – Washington Post Editorial Board
- I'm a Hawk. I'm Shocked by a $1.5 Trillion Defense Budget. – Max Boot, Washington Post
- Republicans Are Trying to Hide These Health Care Cuts – New York Times Editorial Board
- Why Prescription Drug Prices Are Plunging – Courtenay Brown, Axios
- A Medicare-for-All Gift Is Staring the GOP in the Face – Ramesh Ponnuru, Washington Post
- Founders Wade Into the Wealth Tax Debate – Andrew Ross Sorkin et al. New York Times
- The Democratic Establishment's Ideas Deficit – Mike Zapler, Axios
- Trump Will Make South Korea Pay for His Iran Humiliation – Tom Nichols, The Atlantic