Free Republic

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner had some words Tuesday for President Donald Trump's White House ballroom at the annual slavery commiseration at the President's House in Old City. The 24th annual commiseration occurred as city leaders and advocates continue to fight a legal battle to get an exhibit on slavery at the site restored after the Trump administration replaced panels at the exhibit. Krasner, who was one of the speakers at the event, said that President Donald Trump is a "pain in the ass" and an "embodiment of hate, the embodiment of ignorance and the embodiment of depriving people of...

President Trump touted progress on the White House ballroom project on Saturday morning, a day after the Supreme Court temporarily permitted construction work to continue. “Tremendous work has been done on the magnificent BALLROOM/MILITARY COMPLEX being built on the grounds of the White House!” the president wrote on Truth Social, alongside a photo of the construction site. The ballroom project has faced a series of litigation and public scrutiny over reports that the Trump administration planned to use money appropriated by Congress to other agencies. Trump had previously told reporters that private donors would cover the $400 million construction project...

Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily allowed construction of the White House ballroom to continue, freezing for now a lower court decision that would have halted work on the project. Chief Justice John Roberts issued a stay that will remain in place until the Supreme Court takes further action. His order is temporary and gives the high court additional time to consider the Justice Department's request to pause a district court's injunction, which was set to take effect at midnight unless the Supreme Court acted.

WASHINGTON—President Trump’s half-built White House ballroom is a 90,000-square-foot embodiment of a recurring legal conundrum: What happens when a boundary-pushing president moves faster than courts can keep up? The Supreme Court will soon decide whether to allow Trump to continue building the $400 million project. But he and his administration’s lawyers have told the justices that they have no real choice at all. Construction of the “concrete-and-steel superstructure,” they say, has already advanced so far that it would be “practically impossible” to stop now, let alone tear down what has already been built.

Matthew Taylor, a conceptual artist and political strategist, made influential ads and documentaries produced by Steve Bannon. Now he’s assisting the White House.Matthew Taylor officially holds one role in the Trump administration as a senior adviser at the National Endowment for the Humanities, but he has quietly become a key player behind many of the president’s bold initiatives to transform Washington and its cultural legacy.This year, Mr. Trump appointed Mr. Taylor to the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal agency that reviews government construction in Washington, to rubber-stamp approvals for projects such as the White House ballroom and the world’s...

Records show the price tag for the White House ballroom is rising to $600 million, with half of the costs funded by taxpayer dollars, according to a new report from The Washington Post. The news comes months after President Trump said private donors would pay for the $400 million initiative to construct a new ballroom in place of the East Wing. At the end of March, Trump told reporters “We’re donating a building that’s approximately $400 million.”

https://x.com/amuse/status/2038599107544007023 @amuse @amuse·3h DRIVE-BY MEDIA: The New York Times hired a new infographic team to criticize everything. The latest example is the new White House ballroom. I like John’s satirical critique of a US carrier. h/t @johnkonrad ransomnote: click image to view full size March 30, 2026 ransomnote: The ballroom image is attributed to the New York Times so I won't post the full image here. But the aircraft carrier has no attribution.

Six Republicans joined with Democrats on Thursday to support a measure that would block the construction of President Donald Trump's planned White House ballroom. The measure needed 60 votes to pass and came as part of a string of amendment votes ahead of the main vote on a reconciliation bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol. The final vote was 52-47 in favor, with GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, John Husted of Ohio, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina voting to block construction,...

A remarkable two-month sprint higher for the major U.S. stock-market indexes encountered its first major hiccup on Friday, as the Nasdaq Composite plummeted more than 1,121 points — its biggest one-day point drop on record, according to Dow Jones Market Data. That translated to a 4.2% decline for the Nasdaq, the biggest in percentage-point terms since April 10, 2025, data showed. A 2.6% drop for the S&P 500 on Friday was its worst since Oct. 10.

The Senate on Thursday voted on a proposal to block the construction of President Trump’s 90,000 square foot ballroom.The proposal, which needed 60 votes, failed 52-47.However, SIX Republican Senators voted with the Democrats to block the construction of the ballroom: Collins, Husted, Moran, Murkowski, Sullivan and Tillis.The proposal was introduced by Democrat Senator Jeff Merkley during Thursday’s vote-a-rama.

President Trump posted several mock-up images of the “drone port” he hopes to build at the top of the proposed White House ballroom over the weekend — while taking a jab at the judge who is trying to delay construction. “The DronePort at the White House Ballroom will be, perhaps, the most sophisticated anywhere in the World!” Trump boasted on Truth Social. “It will safeguard our Nation’s Capital, Washington, D.C., long into the future. “Judge Richard Leon should stop playing games with America’s Security! If anything happens, he will be held responsible for the Death and Destruction caused to our...

LMFAO!! Trump just went off on a reporter! "You're a STUPID person, and you happen to be!" REPORTER: "You promised to bring inflation down. It's now at its highest level in three years. Are your policies not working? What's happening?" TRUMP: "If you go back to just before the war, for the last three months, inflation was at 1.7%. Now, we had a choice. Let these LUNATICS have a nuclear weapon. If you want to do that, then you're a STUPID person, and you happen to be!"

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is rallying fellow Democrats in a new “Dear Colleague” letter for a battle royale on the Senate floor over $1 billion in proposed funding for President Trump’s 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom that’s tucked into a $72 billion Republican-drafted budget reconciliation package. Schumer is planning to turn the Senate floor debate and marathon voting session on the reconciliation bill into a referendum on lowering costs and scrapping the earmark for the ballroom. “At a time when Americans can’t make ends meet, Republicans say ‘Let them eat cake’ — and then hand Trump a billion dollars...

WASHINGTON, May 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans are seeking to give $1 billion in taxpayer funding to the Secret Service this year for security upgrades, including the White House ballroom. President Donald Trump has said private donations would ​pay for the estimated $400 million ballroom project. The funding package text does not say how much of the new Secret Service funds will pay for the ballroom. The proposed infusion of Secret Service funds was released late Monday as part of a nearly $72 billion package to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection through 2029 on...

Senate Republicans are seeking $1 billion of taxpayer money to help fund “security adjustments and upgrades” linked to Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project. The proposal was outlined in a reconciliation package focusing on federal law enforcement and border security spending, which was released by Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Monday. The legislation also allows for part of the $1 billion package to be used for security upgrades for the East Wing Modernization Project—also known as Trump’s ballroom project—including “above-ground and below-ground security features.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is pushing back on a Republican proposal to spend up to $400 million in federal funds on President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom, citing the nation’s mounting debt and deficit spending. Scott’s comments came after Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced legislation Monday that would help finance the ballroom project with federal dollars. Graham argued the facility would serve security and operational purposes beyond hosting events. “Underneath it will be a lot of military stuff. There will be a Secret Service annex, and we pay for it by offsetting it with customs fees,” Graham said at...

On Monday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “The Weeknight,” Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) said that the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is “about how it comes from our leaders. When people talk about destroying civilizations or calling people name[s], normalizing all of these things, we should not be doing that.” Rosen said, “I can tell you that he always turns everything to himself. And this is not about a ballroom or an auditorium or any place at all. It is about how people in the public sphere treat each other, how they talk to each other.” She added that...

A chorus of bipartisan criticism is mounting over the security loopholes at the venue for the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner — while President Trump and his allies insisted Saturday’s shooting proves the need for his planned über-secure White House ballroom. Critics slammed the security loopholes that allowed guests to check into the historic Washington Hilton hotel without undergoing weapons screenings from the outside. Authorities say that’s how Cole Tomas Allen was able to sneak a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives into the building where President Trump, most of his cabinet, and many top members of Congress were mingling...

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) called for Democrats to “drop” their Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) after a shooting at the Washington Hilton Hotel on Saturday, and called for Democrats to support building the White House ballroom.Fetterman shared a screenshot of a Mediaite article from reporter Joe DePaolo about how security at the hotel, where the Washington Correspondents’ Dinner took place, was “awful.” In a post on X. Fetterman expressed that the venue at the Washington Hilton Hotel “wasn’t built to accommodate an event with the line of succession” of the United States government in attendance.

The construction of President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom can proceed, a federal appeals court ruled late Friday night. The judgement came just 24-hours after a lower court judge continued to block above-ground rebuild on the site of the former East Wing. AP reports a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit put on temporary hold the order by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon halting part of the $400 million project. The ruling marks a substantial victory for the president in his effort to redesign the storied American structure. Construction is now expected...