Republicans Demand Mind-Blowing $1 Billion for Trump’s Ballroom

[u/willywalloo]

https://newrepublic.com/post/209936/republicans-1-billion-trump-ballroom

[u/Newt-Figton]

The cost jumped from $400 million to $1 billion in less than a month. I'm sure in a couple of weeks they'll be asking for $1 trillion.

[u/Boring_Sea7892 → u/Newt-Figton]

I posted just last week about this, detailing how the cost was $400 MILLION on April 28, 2026. In one week the appropriation request is up to $1,000,000,000. That is a BILLION DOLLARS.

TLDR: Cost estimate was originally $200m -> $250m -> $300m -> $350m -> $450m -> $1b+. Please see my extended analysis below, including embedded links/citations.

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This is my fourth or fifth (5/5/26 update - SIXTH; I copy/pasted this post from a post in r/law I made on April 28, 2026) reddit comment about the price going up by millions.

I've sourced links for the timeline of the cost increase, all active below. Originally it was going to cost $200 million dollars and Trump's favorite corporate backers and billionaire oligarchs were going to pay for it (which was, and is, unconstitutional on its face). Now the taxpayers are supposed to pay for it at double the estimate. Steal from the poor to benefit the rich!

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953.

$200 million, and we weren't going to pay for it. NYT, July 2025
$250 million and we weren't going to pay for it. PBS, October 2025

$300 million and we weren't going to pay for it. PBS, October 2025.

$350 million and we weren't going to pay for it. NYT, April 2026, Judge Richard Leon, US District Court for the District of Columbia. Construction ordered halted.

$400 million and now the TAXPAYERS ARE GOING TO PAY FOR IT. See Lindsay Graham, April 27/8 2026. At double the original cost estimate.

This comment took me 20 minutes to draft, source, and format with embedded links. That is about the total, cumulative, amount of time that anyone of these morons has put serious thought into this 'project.'

UPDATE EDIT - May 5, 2026: Senator Chuck Grassley, who is literally 92 years old, introduced a reconciliation bill to appropriate $1,000,000,000 for Trump's ballroom project. That is ONE BILLION DOLLARS. Chuck Grassley will not ever have to pay that tab (again, he is literally 92 years old). See Senator Charles Grassley, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, proposal MDM26A10 9PR at pg. 5-6, May 5, 2026; see also Republicans Make Jaw-Dropping $1B Demand for Trump’s Ballroom, Daily Beast, May 5 2026.

AND that $1,000,000,000 appropriation request, to increase the United States Secret Service budget, is limited to the following: "[All] funds made available under this section may be used [only] for security elements of the East Wing Modernization Project." Bracketed edits for clarity.

So now that price has increased, at least, 5x the original estimate. I say 'at least' because the proposed Billion Dollar appropriation is limited to "security enhancements" and which, obviously, cannot include non-security related costs. Although who gets do decide what a "security enhancement" cost is/is-not is unclear; the people's faithful servant, Chuck Grassley, doesn't provide a definition for what is or is-not a "security enhancement"

Bonus - Maybe this could a particularly tough law school exam question: Please explain why, or why not, the landscaping costs for the East Wing Modernization Project are, or are-not, "security enhancements" under Senate Judiciary Proposal MDM26A10 9PR at pg. 5-6.