Schumer declares war on $1 billion for Trump's White House ballroom

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on May 11, 2026

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Sen. Chuck Schumer is declaring war on the $1 billion Republicans want to spend on President Donald Trump’s glitzy White House ballroom.

The minority leader says Democrats will pull out all the stops to block or delay the ballroom spending, which Republicans slipped into a $72 billion package to fund Trump’s immigration crackdown.

“At a time when Americans can’t make ends meet, Republicans say ‘Let them eat cake’ — and then hand Trump a billion dollars to build a ballroom to serve it in,” Schumer wrote in a letter to fellow Senate Democrats. “Americans do not need a ballroom. They need relief.”

Senate Democrats cannot block the entire bill on their own because Republicans in both houses of Congress are using the arcane reconciliation process that allows them to enact it on a simple majority vote, skirting the Senate filibuster rule.

But they hope to shame a handful of Republicans into withholding support for what Schumer derides as Trump’s “vanity ballroom,” or at least force them to take politically damaging votes to back the plan, which Trump repeatedly promised would not cost taxpayers a dime.

Schumer also vowed Democrats will use other tools to fight the ballroom spending, which the White House says is strictly for security enhancements, including by pushing the Senate parliamentarian to strike the ballroom money from the budget bill.

Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House and started construction of the ballroom without authorization from Congress last fall. He initially said it would cost $200 million but costs have climbed to $400 million.

The president has insisted the project would be completely covered by private donations, an arrangement critics say is rife with potential conflicts of interests.

A federal judge ordered a halt to construction on the above-ground portion of the ballroom, ruling Trump exceeded his presidential authority. But an appeals court paused the ruling pending more legal wrangling.

Republicans last month announced that the actual cost of the ballroom didn’t include the additional $1 billion for purported safety features, which they claimed were particularly necessary after a gunman sought to attack Trump and other top officials at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Democrats have warned that approving the $1 billion for ballroom security enhancements could wind up undercutting the court fight against the ballroom and giving Trump a green light to spend the money however he sees fit.

The Senate is expected to start voting this week on its version of the $72 billion plan, which was originally aimed at funding agencies carrying out Trump’s mass deportation campaign that Democrats refused to bankroll without major reforms.

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