The Trump administration’s budget office has redirected $352 million that was intended in part for Secret Service training and recruitment to what it described as security measures at the White House, a government database shows.
The White House and the Office of Management and Budget did not specify the purpose of the unusually large shift in response to questions on Wednesday. But a person familiar with the Secret Service budget, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, told The Washington Post the funding was to help pay for a new White House East Wing that includes a large ballroom.
Asked about the shift and its purpose, a White House spokesman issued a statement stressing the necessity of security enhancements for the East Wing project. “The East Wing Modernization Project is inextricably tied to the security of the President, the White House grounds and the certain security infrastructure assets,” spokesman Davis R. Ingle wrote in a statement.
The Secret Service did not respond to emailed questions.
The transfer of Secret Service funds — equal to more than 10 percent of the agency’s annual budget in recent years — comes amid revelations that President Donald Trump’s controversial ballroom project will rely more significantly on taxpayer money than the administration has publicly acknowledged.
Trump has claimed repeatedly that the project will cost $400 million and has generally said it will be funded entirely by private donors. But this week, The Post reported that the contractor overseeing the work told the White House in March that the expected cost was $600 million, with more than half coming from taxpayers.
The March budget estimates obtained by The Post show that $155 million for the project was expected to come from the Secret Service. Most of the rest of the public funding was projected to come from the White House Military Office.
The administration’s budget office on Friday disclosed in a public database that it was redirecting $340.8 million and $10.8 million in Secret Service money for “White House Security Measures.”
The redirected money, included in the Republican spending package dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed last July, was intended to bolster the Secret Service after two attempts on the president’s life — the first at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the second at his West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course.
The law provided the Secret Service with $1.17 billion and specified that the money was meant to provide for “personnel, training facilities, programming, and technology” as well as “performance, retention, and signing bonuses” for agency personnel.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued a news release at the time celebrating the law’s passage, saying it “provides essential resources for U.S. Secret Service recruitment and training efforts in the wake of two assassination attempts against President Trump.”
Neither the bill nor Grassley’s office made any mention of the White House’s East Wing. Grassley’s office did not immediately respond on Wednesday to questions about whether he supports use of the funds for the East Wing.
Key senators from both parties questioned the redirecting of the funds, which was first reported by Roll Call.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the appropriations committee, directed staff to look into the move, according to a Republican staffer familiar with the matter.
On Tuesday, after The Post’s report, Collins said she had taken Trump at his word. “I’ve said repeatedly that the President has promised only private donations would be used for the ballroom, and I believe he should keep that promise,” she said in an interview.
Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, a member of the appropriations committee and the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said the transfer showed Trump was more interested in his “vanity project” than safety and security.
“This funding was intended to pay Secret Service agents and ensure they have the technology and resources they need to keep individuals under their protection safe,” he said in a statement.
The administration has been pressing Congress to allocate taxpayer funds for the project since an armed man ran through a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Secret Service Director Sean Curran wrote to Republican congressional leaders after the incident to back a proposed $1 billion for the Secret Service in part for “security upgrades at the White House to minimize threats, including the security components to the East Wing Modernization Project.” In a private meeting, Curran pitched GOP senators on spending $220 million of that money on “hardening” the ballroom.
Several Republican lawmakers in both chambers raised concerns about providing funding for the ballroom project in the lead up to the midterm elections, especially as Americans express frustration with the cost of living. The funding was stripped out of a larger spending bill because rules prevented it from being included.
Ingle, the White House spokesman, said in his statement that an alleged plot to attack the White House during a UFC event last weekend “proves exactly why the East Wing Modernization Project is severely needed for large scale events, which include drone proof structures and drone ports among other critical security enhancements.”
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