[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2272612872.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tRepublicans in Congress are moving to fast-track funding for Donald Trump\u2019s planned White House ballroom, using the weekend attack at a Washington press gala to argue that current venues are too vulnerable.<\/p>\n
\n\tAccording to the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>, Senator Lindsey Graham said Monday that he wants lawmakers to approve roughly $400 million for the project, which would include not just an event space but secure facilities beneath it. The goal, he said, is to keep large, high-profile gatherings on White House grounds rather than sending presidents and guests off-site.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe saw Saturday that America has a problem,\u201d Graham said, pointing to the difficulty of securing major events outside a controlled environment.<\/p>\n \n\tOther Republicans quickly lined up behind the effort. Representative Lauren Boebert and Senator Rand Paul said they were preparing legislation, while Senator Tim Sheehy pushed for a fast vote in the Senate, calling it \u201can embarrassment\u201d that such events cannot be held safely in the capital.<\/p>\n \n\tThe ballroom has already become a flashpoint. Trump began moving forward without congressional approval, including plans that involved demolishing the historic East Wing. A federal judge\u00a0emphatically halted\u00a0the project, citing the lack of authorization, though an appeals court has allowed construction to continue while it reviews the decision.<\/p>\n \n\tLast week, a court order forced the release of a contract that\u00a0hid the identities\u00a0of donors to Trumps ballroom project. That contract also \u201cdoes not require conflict-of-interest review for the White House or the broader executive branch.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTrump has said the project would rely on private donations, raising concerns about donors seeking influence. Graham suggested shifting the project to rely on public funding, offset by federal fees, while leaving private money for extras.<\/p>\n \n\tDemocrats attacked this latest push. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Republicans should focus instead on funding the Department of Homeland Security, which has been partially shut down for more than 70 days, including resources for the Secret Service.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIf Republicans truly want to improve security, they should join Democrats in funding the Secret Service, not Donald Trump\u2019s luxury ballroom,\u201d Schumer said.<\/p>\n \n\tHouse Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries dismissed the project as a \u201cvanity\u201d effort, arguing that lawmakers should prioritize cost-of-living concerns over a new event space.<\/p>\n \n\tRepublicans counter that the project is meant as a long-term upgrade tied to the presidency itself. Graham framed it that way, saying the benefits\u00a0would extend\u00a0beyond any single administration.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis is not about Trump,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about the presidency of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOne open question is whether such a space would actually be used for the events now being cited as justification. The White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner, for example, is organized by journalists, not the current presidential administration, and traditionally held at the Washington Hilton, and it is unclear whether the group would move it onto White House grounds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/republicans-push-400-million-white-house-ballroom-gala-attack-1234782912\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2272612872.jpg?w=1024″] Republicans in Congress are moving to fast-track funding for Donald Trump\u2019s planned White House ballroom, using the weekend attack at a Washington press gala to argue that current venues are too vulnerable. According to the\u00a0New York Times, Senator Lindsey Graham said Monday that he wants lawmakers to approve roughly $400 million for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1907856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1907856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1907856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1907856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1907856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1907856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1907856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}