President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that he does not know if he has lost his grip on the Republican Senate majority as senators prepare to advance a border security funding bill without the $1 billion he has demanded to fund parts of his controversial White House ballroom.
Trump's Oval Office Comments
Asked whether he is losing control of a Senate majority that has until now been remarkably deferential at the expense of their own authority during an Oval Office appearance with grocery executives and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Trump replied: “I really don't know. I can tell you, I only do what's right.”
“I don't need money for the ballroom,” he continued, adding that the idea that any taxpayer dollars are needed for the project is “the biggest misreporting that I've ever seen.”
“It's being done in conjunction with the military, and with the very much in conjunction with the military and Secret Service. We're on time, on budget. It's going beautifully. Have all the money I need,” he said.
Senate Rejection of Funding
The president’s comments came as senators are poised to reject his request for $1 billion in funding for what the White House has described as security upgrades to the ballroom and the cavernous underground facility being constructed beneath the site where the East Wing stood until Trump ordered it demolished last fall.
He attempted to distinguish the $1 billion in requested taxpayer funds for the project from the millions he claims to have raised from private donors for the massive facility, which will dwarf the White House and West Wing when completed.
“The money that they're spending is for security, having to do maybe around the ballroom and other parts of the house, but this is not for the ballroom,” he said. “We're building what will be the finest ballroom anywhere in the world. If they want to spend money on securing the White House, I think it would be very, very much a good expenditure, but the ballroom is being built.”
When pressed on what would happen if senators reject the request to add the ballroom funding to the border bill, Trump replied: “Then the White House won't be a very secure place.”
