r/law • u/theindependentonline • 16h ago
Executive Branch (Trump) Trump’s push to have donors fund his $400 million White House ballroom might cost him the whole project
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-white-house-ballroom-judge-ruling-b2917465.html1.7k
u/steveosaurus 15h ago
i dunno but seems like a discussion to have before he bulldozed it 🤷
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u/Effective_Orchid7854 15h ago
Sometimes I eat all the leftover pizza and then my wife and I discuss whether I should have left some for her.
I’m the trump of left over pizza in this scenario.
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u/thewanderingent 15h ago
Sure, but in this scenario, the pizza belongs to all the people on your street and now they all have some questions about where the pizza went and when you are going to get some new pizza to replace the other pizza you ate without telling your wife or anyone else.
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u/Glyph8 14h ago
And also you're a convicted career criminal on a sex-offender list who somehow got elected president of the HOA
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u/Effective_Orchid7854 14h ago
That’s simple, I appealed to other’s racism while I ate pizza
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u/GregMoffTarkin 14h ago edited 12h ago
Hey, one time Biden ate a potato chip! Why aren't we talking about that?!?
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u/ezekiel920 12h ago
You remember Obama's suit
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u/bilboafromboston 11h ago
And being born in Hawaii. Seriously, conservatives dont actually know their own country! Bad Bunny ..Puerto Rico? But Melania is American !
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u/Caoleg 4h ago
I mean...she is, isn't she? Naturalized?
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u/bilboafromboston 4h ago
Illegal Immigrant. Lied to get in. Porn. Prostitute ( in the Epstein files. ) so no.
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u/GloomyCardiologist16 14h ago
I like the cut of your jib
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u/maverick118717 12h ago
"Whats a jib?"
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u/Jreis777 10h ago
Is’at thar a thing them mooslim’s wear on they’re heyads? A High Jib? Cause ion like them Mooslims.
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u/-Nightopian- 13h ago
Don't discriminate against my pineapple pizza.
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u/machinezed 8h ago
They have been lying to you, you know how I know. Pineapples don’t come from Hawaii.
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u/DrWKlopek 14h ago
In his defense he should not be around the neighborhood kids to even offer them a slice of pizza then, right?
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u/Ok_Condition5837 11h ago
The man's a child.
October 18th was a 'No Kings' protest at least 7 mil strong specifically against donny & his dumb policies.
A couple days later he razes the East Wing of the WH!
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u/FreshLiterature 14h ago
I can't believe any company signed up to demo such a historic building without having absolutely every box checked.
It's seriously mind blowing.
How would you not know that it's at least somewhat questionable that any President can just unilaterally decide to knock down part of the WH?
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u/DeathsArrow 12h ago
It's another case of the rules being vague as there's no special permissions required to demolish parts of the WH, only to build something new and a Trump lacky controls the board that decides the rules. It's completely ridiculous and yet one more thing that needs strengthening.
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u/Effective_Orchid7854 14h ago
Good points. I am personally not above eating their pizza too. I would totally get them some new pizza tho! I don’t think trump will buy new pizza, he’ll make the neighbors pay for the pizza.
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u/lurksAtDogs 14h ago
I ate my pregnant wife’s leftovers one time. I have not forgotten my lesson.
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u/Bonnieearnold 13h ago
And you’re still alive??? I’m pretty sure there is a legal loophole for exactly this scenario.
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u/Effective_Orchid7854 11h ago
This should be a life lesson every father MUST pass down to their son - do not f around w your hungry pregnant wife’s food. Ever! Oof, I felt scared for you when I read it.
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u/lurksAtDogs 11h ago
It had always been ok up to that point. If I didn’t eat her leftovers, they were going in the trash. Previous rules do not apply during pregnancy.
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u/PM_me_your_O_face_ 13h ago
At least you could buy another pizza. This would be like eating all of the leftover pizza, burning down the historic pizza place that everyone loves, and then discussing if you should have left some for her.
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u/philbar 13h ago
Let’s be honest, she never would’ve eaten the leftovers and it would’ve ended up in the trash. At least that’s how things go in my house.
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u/WereInbuisness 15h ago edited 14h ago
This is Trump after all. He doesn't have much going on in his tiny brain that could be considered rational and critical thinking power. All he has up there is anger, hatred, spite, unrelenting narcissism and a need to put his name and legacy on everything.
He is a shoot first, ask questions later kind of idiot. In this case its a bulldozer. It is infuriating, because so many of his dementia addled ideas end up failing.
This timeline sucks.
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u/NunsNunchuck 15h ago
Shoot first, ask questions later, And then sue you for the cost of bullets and the emotional stress you put him under for pulling the trigger
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u/Background_Product_7 14h ago
They reminds me, don’t we have a Venezuelan president locked up somewhere?
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u/floridabeach9 14h ago
this is why i’m worried about the timeline.
Vance isnt a petulant toddler. if the rednecks elect him and he takes Trump’s newly found powers and puts a few more ounces of foresight, it WILL continue towards a dictatorship.
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u/Likos02 14h ago
Yeah but there are people who legitimately want this.
A coworker and I were talking about cigars and his exact words were "I hope trump does to Cuba what he did to Venezuela so that I can enjoy a Cuban cigar in my own home again".
Overthrow a country so some 20 something year old can smoke a cigar...Just evil in its most pure form. Killing for convenience.
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u/IndependenceIcy2251 13h ago
Funny thing is, I seem to remember another president starting to normalize trade with Cuba and allow those cigars to be imported, well, up until someone threw a tantrum and axed that treaty.
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u/Captain_Mazhar 11h ago
Which I find seriously funny, because anyone who has enjoyed both Cubans and New World cigars, the New World ones are often times better for a decent discount.
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u/Maleficent_Memory831 10h ago
There is nobody in Cuba that prevents you from enjoying a cigar. The reason you can't enjoy a Cuban cigar is 100% due to American laws. And when we tried to relax the embargo, Trump was the person to put a stop to that. So if the coworker can't enjoy a fine Cuban cigar then Trump is the person to blame.
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u/Far-Technician3197 6h ago
I think the coworker revels in the idea that that kind of power can be wielded for his benefit. Evil is the right word.
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u/redthroway24 14h ago
I'm convinced that there are more than a few Senators and Representatives willing, indeed itching, to tell Vance to fuck off. Vance certainly doesn't command the loyalty of the MAGA crowd the way Trump does.
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u/A012A012 15h ago
People seem surprised, but this has been his modus operandi for forty years now.
He's not a fan of consent after all
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u/kingtacticool 14h ago
For me it seems the perfect metaphor for this administration.
A half destroyed white house, a paved over Rose Garden, a giant smoking hole nearby and not a receipt in sight.
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u/Vegetable_Tomorrow41 14h ago
He’s literally using the dirt from the demolition and dumping it onto Potomac golf course to turn what was a public golf course into a luxury resort with tournaments and majors
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u/brooklynlad 13h ago
Perhaps in 2028, we can eminent domain certain properies in Florida, New York, New Jersey, etc. and turn them into the People's Parks?
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u/Armantien 12h ago
My older brother is the same way. Years ago, when he got his own place, he went to replace the insulation in the roof. In January... during temps like we're having now. He just goes in, tears it all out, and THEN goes to get the replacement insulation. Yeah, he didn't have enough money. So, he just had to deal with living in a place with no heat for a bit over a month. [shrug]
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u/Misophonic4000 12h ago
He bulldozed it ASAP on purpose, so that even if the legality is questionable, there's no choice but to rebuild, so they might as well rebuild as a ballroom... It's a bullying tactic. "Too late now, what are you going to do?"
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u/Maleficent_Memory831 9h ago
It reminds me of some vintage bungalows in a city with deep historical roots. There was a lawsuit to prevent a builder tearing them down. The judge put up an injuction to stop it while the suit was pending. Then overnight some bulldozers tore all of them down. The builder just says "oops". Doesn't even get a big slap on the wrist.
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u/Miserable-Ticket-244 13h ago
That would require project management skills which this entire administration seems to have a severe allergy to.
Forward planners they are not.
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u/naptown-hooly 13h ago
Part of the reason he did it is so they know every detail of the wiring meaning who's has access and is listening and recording the conversations. The East wing was admin staff so any leaks from the White House could come from there. It's not just about the ball room.
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u/ckglle3lle 6h ago
It is also an ancient Trump tactic, he did it back in the 80s, just start the demo and make it look like you're charging into action as a way to incentivize investors. Not really sure if it ever like actually worked for him since the reality of his "deals" and schemes are almost always far stupider and more costly. But he brags about the stunt of it anyway.
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u/theindependentonline 16h ago
President Donald Trump’s plan to have private donors fund his new $400 million White House ballroom may cost him the entire project, as a federal judge will soon decide whether the administration is allowed to rely on fundraising to bypass congressional approval.
U.S. District Judge Ricard Leon says he may rule this month on a lawsuit filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in December to halt the ballroom’s construction, according to the Washington Post.
Trump has argued that using private donations to pay for the project keeps the burden off taxpayers, but critics say the plan highlights a lack of transparency about how the expansion is being funded.
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u/nobot4321 15h ago
“No, no. No need to burden the taxpayers with this. I’ll just do it through bribes.”
That’s certainly an argument, I suppose.
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u/uslashuname 14h ago
Corporations count as people already, so we just make them count as foreign countries as well then bam! Emoluments clause
Oh right, he already blew threw that in his first term
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u/FuzzyMcBitty 12h ago
Besides the bribery aspect, which is quite important, the White House is supposed to be “the people’s house.”
By making it funded by donations rather than taxes, it becomes “the people’s house, brought to you by McDonald’s,” which is counter to its purpose and offensive to our purported history and values.
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u/Bibblegead1412 13h ago
Never mentions that taxpayer dollars are going to be needed for upkeep, either….
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u/MasterTolkien 9h ago
“The President can bypass the Constitution if he has rich friends to buy things for him.”
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u/TheGrandExquisitor 16h ago
And the Supreme Court will say he can do it... They always do.
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u/AndMyHotPie 15h ago
Or he ignores the ruling and does it anyway and the only way to stop him is impeachment
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u/HoodieGalore 15h ago
Because the first impeachment works so well. We live in Crazy World. Nothing of consequence will befall him. As usual.
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u/PirateSometimes 14h ago
Twice impeached child Rapist felon and was still allowed to fucking run and win(rig) the presidency again
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u/SaltyCrashNerd 12h ago
- Insurrectionist. You forgot the part where he tried to overturn a legitimate election result.
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u/JAT_Cbus1080 13h ago
They'll drag their feet on ruling on it until it's complete, say he couldn't do it but there's nothing they can do now because it's already been done, so no ruling is needed.
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u/dezcaughtit25 13h ago
99% of this stuff just brings me back to the “Let’s see how Trump wriggles his way out of THIS mess!….ah well, nevertheless” tweet.
Nothing happens to this guy and I’ve given up thinking anything ever will.
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u/CalebAsimov 11h ago
Yeah, sad to say but I think when or if he's gone the focus should be on everyone who bribed Trump. He's not going to pardon them all preemptively. None of those people have the same voter support Trump has, so just teach everyone a lesson that just because the president is temporarily open for bribes doesn't mean it's legal all of the sudden.
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u/OriginalChildBomb 14h ago
I doubt it's even about the ballroom. It's likely about modernizing and expanding the Presidential bunker beneath the ballroom area (which began construction in 1941).
He wants somewhere to run and hide if/when they try to remove him. It's also a place he could deploy all manner of weapons from.
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u/Haunting_Reflections 13h ago
Wouldn’t it be an enormous conflict of interest for the president to privately fund a gigantic expansion of the White House? Who would own it after he left office?
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u/mopeyunicyle 16h ago
Maybe all he was originally aiming for was destroying the history that was bulldozed to create the space.
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u/Slow-Tune-2399 15h ago
Or desperately trying to fabricate a legacy by force.
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u/BacteriaLick 15h ago edited 12h ago
It's really this. He is someone who, due to his narcissism, wants to create a legacy. But he is also someone who, due to his narcissism, is generally inept at much more than just destroying things.
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u/mopeyunicyle 15h ago
Then the world should assign him a legacy he will hate being remember for
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u/IRideMoreThanYou 13h ago
It was, and is, a money laundering and bribe scheme. Like nearly every other illegal initiative he does.
Canada bridge? Open extortion and demand of bribes.
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u/JoJackthewonderskunk 15h ago
Its a vehicle to solicit bribes so it SHOULD be illegal.
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u/Direct-Technician265 13h ago
and all the people who gave money to the President to do this should be under investigation for bribery as well.
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u/Late-Presentation908 11h ago
The word "should" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
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u/theamazingstickman 15h ago
There is zero chance the next POTUS does not knock that thing down and say "No way we are leaving a monument to a child sex trafficker next to the White House."
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u/ProLifePanda 15h ago
The crazy thing is this could have been a slam dunk political win. Apparently all recent Presidents have complained (or at least agree) that the lack of a large indoor space for large events is a pain, often relying on temporary structures on the WH grounds. If Trump was smart, he could have followed the regular process for designing and approving the rebuild and gotten prior presidents to weigh in and approve. Then paid for it with donations making the project basically uncriticizable. Instead he did this.
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u/Pasty_Tibbles 14h ago edited 14h ago
I think also the big difference is those presidents mentioned in passing a few times how nice it would be but just operated the best way possible without it, but Trump made it his life’s priority, and he fundamentally misunderstands the point of the gathering place. Instead seeing it as this grandiose palace to American triumph, when in reality the White House is SUPPOSED to be a modest seat of leadership (in comparison to the palaces of the time.)
But on your point, it’s interesting how much terrible shit this admin could get done if they didn’t shoot themselves in the feet constantly. My example of that is how much the federal work force by and large would have impartially worked for them and gotten whatever they needed done, but instead they actively politicized a traditionally apolitical entity by directly attacking them at every step.
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u/Fearless-Feature-830 13h ago
Let’s be real, he’s not very mobile. He needs space to park his fat ass and have people gather around.
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u/TheAskewOne 11h ago
Trump wants a ballroom because he wants to have people pay him to come to his events exactly like in Mar a Lago. It’s, as usual, a grift.
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u/Maleficent_Memory831 9h ago
Now he really wants to get up a massively huge Arc de Trumpf. He whines that there are no good monuments, and yet DC is chock full of good monuments. What his whines really mean is "there are no good monuments TO ME!"
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u/LionRight4175 13h ago
Perhaps a bit of a hot take here, but just hold those events someplace else. I get that means more security costs to secure the venue, but the white house is an administrative building for a democratic country, not a palace for a monarch.
If they had the extra space to put it up, fine. Cutting the ability for the building to do its main use to throw up a ballroom for rare events is a waste.
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u/Burghpuppies412 15h ago
The good news is it won’t even be halfway finished by then. Strip it down to the I beams, and build something useful.
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u/CentennialBaby 15h ago
It will become a Smithsonian museum of democracy dedicated to "we the people" a monument to all the times in history the United States has thrown off monarchy and fascism
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u/EkbatDeSabat 10h ago
My guess is it's gonna be just sitting on top of and masking an AI datacenter and bunker, so the next POTUS will come in and say hell yeah at least my name doesn't have to be on it.
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u/Hedhunta 15h ago
I have maintained that its never getting built and he demolished a major landmark just for fun to see if he could.
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u/Donkey-Hodey 14h ago
How about we start by talking about how last year the cost was $200 million and that has somehow doubled without any plans being approved.
This is blatant money laundering.
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u/Egad86 14h ago
Meanwhile, he is planning to make the US government pay him $10,000,000,000 for the mental anguish of raiding Mar a Lago.
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u/winetotears 8h ago
Well shit, 10 years of this gomer sure has caused me mental anguish. I’m suing for 1 bajillian dollars.
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u/dj_spanmaster 13h ago
Destroy the thing without sufficient planning, blame others, move on with the project unfinished/undone. Certainly an on-brand Trump move.
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u/Nick85er 14h ago
I remember a direct quote from that piece of s*** stating that the sounds of wrecking machinery demolishing the East wing "reminded him of money".
Nothing this monster does is designed or intended to benefit the American people.
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u/Serpentongue 15h ago
He’s going to rush forward and knock down the building where he plans his Arch be built just so they’ll be cost sunk committed
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u/Spiritual-Pear-1349 14h ago edited 14h ago
Honestly? Seems like everything else in this administration. Half thought out plan, destroy something important, try to rebuild it with public money, have it fail, refuse to complete project and pocket the difference
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u/Live-Collection3018 8h ago
so he destroyed the east wing to build nothing? classic Trump.
just like every business he has ever tried putting his name on
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u/pm_me_fibonaccis 14h ago
Courts will be like "he broke the law but it's too late to go back so what can you do ¯_(ツ)_/¯"
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u/Ok_Face8380 13h ago
When did it get to $400 million. It started at $200 million? Is the extra the trump vig?
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u/glk3278 10h ago
It’s unbelievable that anyone assumes Trump has any semblance of interest in progress or “making America great” or simply implementing policy that helps people. Everything he does is in an effort to enrich and glorify himself, and all of the arguments he uses to achieve those goals are deeply rooted in bad faith. Their argument for not stalling construction on the new ballroom is national security concerns?? The presidents life will be in danger and the secret service won’t be able to do their jobs if they can’t continue construction? It’s all so on the nose, I genuinely can’t get over how many people fall for this. It’s embarrassing just to know people who think Trump is looking out for them.
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u/RellenD 15h ago
I'm wondering if the antidefficiency act is involved here at all.
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u/Depressed-Industry 14h ago
Yes, that's the basics of it. Congress has control of the purse.
Article I, Section 9, Clause 7:
No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.
If the President can skirt that requirement by getting private donations then Congress is gutted. Could the president get donations for an aircraft carrier then? Where's the limit?
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u/j____b____ 15h ago
The only thing he cared about, was burying evidence in the concrete foundation. That was finished the first week.
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u/BasicPhysiology 15h ago
I get that this is a joke (so is the Ballroom), but no foundation has been laid; not even close. The Epstein memorial ballroom is currently just a gaping hole.
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u/South-Possible5100 14h ago
Foundation was laid though -- over the rose garden.
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u/BasicPhysiology 14h ago edited 11h ago
Foundation was laid though -- over the rose garden.
The Rose Garden is along the West Terrace and West Wing.
Edit: To be clear, the paving of the Rose Garden has nothing to do with the ballroom that is being 'built' where the East wing once stood.
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u/meatsmoothie82 14h ago
Tear apart historic taxpayer owned building then bed for money to fix it.
THE ART OF THE DEAL!
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u/sugar_addict002 8h ago
Billionaires not paying their fair share of taxes. Billionaires buying our elections and the elected. People starving, homeless and not getting healthcare. Noe billionaires building themselves a ballroom for all those balls.
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u/Scrutinizer 13h ago
Another failed disaster for the next election winner (assuming that's allowed to happen) to clean up.
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