Funding for President Donald Trump’s pricey White House ballroom is on the verge of being “ejected” from his own party’s immigration enforcement bill, according to a new report.
The White House ballroom project has been touted as a $400 million privately funded build, though Republicans have also pushed a separate $1 billion taxpayer-funded security request tied to the broader East Wing modernization project that includes the ballroom.
Politico reported late Tuesday that the ballroom is “on the brink of being ejected” from the GOP’s immigration legislation.
“Four Republican senators have raised public objections to spending taxpayer money on the project, possibly enough to kill it given the broad Democratic opposition. A larger group of Republicans is privately opposed to the funding, according to five people granted anonymity to disclose internal deliberations,” the report said.
The report comes after Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), fresh off a high-profile primary loss, said he would not vote in favor of funding the ballroom.
“They don’t have a bid, they don’t have engineering, they don’t have architecture. …They just kind of made that number up,” he said. “So from what I know now, I will not be voting for the ballroom fund.”
Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have also dumped cold water on the idea, along with outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC).
“One billion in ballroom funding is just not going to fly, right? It’s just not going to fly,” Murkowski said.
The crumbling support follows a Senate parliamentarian ruling Saturday night that GOP leaders couldn’t include the $1 billion in the reconciliation bill under chamber rules. The procedural verdict infuriated Trump and prompted him to privately demand that Senate Majority Leader John Thune fire parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough. Thune refused.
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