Schumer leads chorus of outrage over $1 billion for Trump's 'free' ballroom

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on May 6, 2026

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Sen. Chuck Schumer led a chorus of Democratic outrage on Wednesday over a Republican proposal to spend $1 billion on the glitzy White House ballroom that President Trump repeatedly promised would be built without using any public money.

The Senate minority leader and fellow lawmakers trashed the plan to rubber-stamp the 10-figure sum that would pay for security upgrades for the ballroom, which the proposal called the “East Wing Modernization project.”

“One billion dollars for a super-sized, gilded ballroom as prices are skyrocketing and families are struggling to afford gas, and rent is ridiculously out of touch,” Schumer, D-N.Y., told the Daily News.

“Hardworking families want lower costs, not a golden ballroom,” added Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The outrage came as Trump defended the ballroom against criticism that the costs have ballooned by his own admission from $200 to $400 million.

“It will be magnificent, safe, and secure!” Trump wrote on his social media site. “This was a necessary change, it was done long ago, but the Fake News failed to report it, trying to make it look like there was a cost overrun. Actually, it is coming in ahead of schedule, and under budget!”

The president has repeatedly and emphatically said the sprawling 90,000-square-foot ballroom would be entirely bankrolled by private donors with “not one penny” from taxpayers.

The White House now says that didn’t include the costs of a planned underground bunker beneath the hall, which will dwarf the actual White House.

The new $1 billion was added to a $72 billion GOP spending package that would fund immigration enforcement agencies carrying out Trump’s controversial mass deportation campaign.

Republicans say it’s more needed than ever after a gunman sought to attack Trump and other administration officials at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

GOP need to pass the immigration spending because the deal that ended the partial government shutdown and funded the rest of the Department of Homeland Security did not include money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.

Republicans plan to pass the new bill including the ballroom money on party-line votes in both houses of Congress using the reconciliation process that skirts the Senate filibuster. Now they have added other items including the ballroom billion.

The White House has said in other court documents that the East Wing project would be “heavily fortified,” including bomb shelters, military installations and a medical facility underneath the ballroom. Trump has said it should include bulletproof glass and be able to repel drone attacks.

A federal judge blocked above-ground construction after the National Trust for Historic Preservation sued, but a federal appeals court ruled that it can continue for the time being pending more legal wrangling.

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