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How the White House ballroom became emblematic of the Trump presidency

鈥淲e need the ballroom鈥� for the White House, President Donald Trump asserted to reporters late on April 25, less than two hours after a gunman tried to storm a hotel ballroom where the president was about to speak.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 why Secret Service, that鈥檚 why the military are demanding it,鈥� , following an alleged assassination attempt at the Washington Hilton. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e wanted the ballroom for 150 years.鈥�

There鈥檚 no evidence that that鈥檚 the case, but the point is clear: President Trump鈥檚 planned 90,000-square-foot, highly secure White House ballroom 鈥� at the moment still a hole in the ground where the East Wing once stood 鈥� is an animating focus of his second term.

It鈥檚 both a symbol of his desire to create an enduring physical legacy at the heart of American power and an effort to fulfill a genuine need for a larger event space on the White House campus. The project also includes an underground national-security complex.

Ethics experts say the ballroom is a key example of pay-to-play behavior, with wealthy donors and corporations appearing to curry favor with the administration by donating to a favored presidential project.

Some of the 鈥� including major firms in finance, tech, defense, and cryptocurrency 鈥� while others remain undisclosed. Some, such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia, have business before the administration, for example in helping to shape policy around artificial intelligence.

But the project also represents the stunning fashion in which Mr. Trump has shattered norms around presidential power, in tearing down the East Wing of the White House last October without advance authorization, ignoring seeming conflicts of interest with private donors, and then trying to secure permission for the new structure only after it was underway.

鈥淧resident Trump鈥檚 approach to ethics seems to be to ask for forgiveness rather than permission,鈥� says Ann Skeet, senior director of leadership ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

How the new ballroom will be paid for appears to be in flux. Until last month鈥檚 shooting at the Hilton, where Mr. Trump was attending the White House Correspondents鈥� Association dinner, the $400 million White House ballroom was going to be fully covered by private donations.

Now, after the latest apparent assassination attempt on Mr. Trump, public funding is on the table. One bill introduced by a group of Republicans, led by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, would authorize $400 million to fund construction of the ballroom and the national-security-related facility below it. Senator Graham says national park user fees and customs fees would offset the costs.

Another GOP senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, filed a joint resolution last week to authorize construction of the ballroom and the below-ground security facility, but not to fund the project. 鈥淢y bill just says it鈥檚 authorized, and if he has the private money to do it, he can move forward,鈥� Senator Paul .

A third proposal, released Tuesday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley of Iowa, would allocate $1 billion for enhanced Secret Service security, including the 鈥淓ast Wing Modernization Project,鈥� as part of the Republicans鈥� funding bill for immigration enforcement. The legislative text says the money may not be used for 鈥渘on-security elements鈥� of the project.

The flurry of legislation has fueled conspiracy theories that the latest alleged assassination attempt was staged to help Mr. Trump gain congressional approval and funding for his ballroom. But the funding aspect may not fly, political analysts say, given the optics around taxpayer money going to a presidential ballroom during a midterm campaign dominated by voter concerns about the cost of living.

Last week, for security reasons, the Department of Justice asked U.S. District Judge Richard Leon on ballroom construction. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had already temporarily blocked Judge Leon鈥檚 ruling, into June.

Mr. Trump鈥檚 goal is to complete the new ballroom 鈥� and the secure military complex directly beneath it 鈥� before he leaves office in January 2029.

Almost twice the size of the main White House edifice, the ballroom is meant to accommodate much larger events (up to 1,000 people) than the current mansion can (up to 250 people).

Over the decades, U.S. presidents have pitched tents on the White House鈥檚 South Lawn for larger events, hardly the elegant setting one might expect from the most powerful country in the world.

Changes to the White House are hardly unheard of. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman added a balcony to the south-facing side of the mansion. In the early 1960s, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy oversaw renovations to the White House funded with private donations.

But Mr. Trump, a real estate developer by profession, has plans much grander than a simple home renovation project. Beyond criticisms of Mr. Trump鈥檚 taste, ethical questions have swirled around donations to the ballroom 鈥� starting with the identity of donors and what they might be getting in return for their largesse.

Under the project鈥檚 fundraising contract, after the watchdog group Public Citizen sued for its release, many donors remain anonymous at their request. But a list of more than three dozen donors was released by the White House last fall, though the amounts of the donations were not revealed. Some donors, such as chipmaker Nvidia, revealed voluntarily that they donated to the White House ballroom.

In response to a query from the Monitor, a White House official said that contracts related to the White House executive residence have never been posted, for security reasons.

In the world of Trump fundraising, as overseen by the president鈥檚 chief campaign finance operative, Meredith O鈥橰ourke, there are many other projects collecting donations.

鈥淭his is so much bigger than the ballroom,鈥� says Kedric Payne, senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center in Washington. 鈥淭here are so many other projects he鈥檚 raising money for in the same manner.鈥�

Mr. Payne points to the Trump presidential library in Miami; The Trump Kennedy Center in Washington; the planned honoring noteworthy Americans, also in Washington; and Freedom 250, the .

In some cases, such as the presidential library, private donations are the standard route for funding. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, now dubbed The Trump Kennedy Center, also has a long history of private fundraising 鈥� appropriately so, say ethics experts who stress that transparency on who is donating is essential to maintaining trust.

And in a way, Mr. Trump can鈥檛 win. He gets criticized for soliciting private donations for public projects, but he also gets criticized when Congress tries to fund such projects.

Kathleen Clark, a law professor and expert on government ethics at Washington University in St. Louis, sees the need for Congress to assert itself and exercise more oversight over the president.

鈥淗e is coercively extracting money from [donors] to fund his pet projects, and he鈥檚 done so without, at this point, any authorization or appropriation from Congress,鈥� Professor Clark says.