The American president has never been richer, while at the same time managing to burn through taxpayer cash at a faster rate than Donald Trump. Foreign wars are bleeding the Pentagon dry, expensive vanity projects from Trump’s Cabinet members are sending millions up in smoke, and — as it turns out — almost one billion dollars in White House renovations are available to throw on the pyre.
According to administration records and contracts obtained by The Washington Post, Trump plans to spend roughly $900 million on the various renovations he has ordered for the presidential residence. The list of projects would make the monarchs of old turn green. He demolished the East Wing in order to build a (legally stalled) ballroom; paved over Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden in order to recreate Mar-a-Lago’s poolside patio; remodeled the fountains in Lafayette Park, plopped a helipad in the middle of the South Lawn; and is planning to build a brand new visitors center to replace the one he bulldozed. And, of course, we can’t forget the many DIY gold-plated additions the president has been seen supergluing to walls and mantlepieces, but those are a comparatively small change. This is all, of course, without the approval of Congress, or any real consultation with preservationists and architectural historians.
According to the Post, most of the money for these projects is being cobbled together from funds allocated to other federal agencies — most notably the National Parks Service — and White House maintenance funds. It amounts to a significantly heftier pricetag than the $600 million originally proposed for the renovations.
In a statement to the Post, the White House claimed that “President Trump continues to implement long-overdue and necessary renovations to beautify the People’s House as we celebrate our great Nation’s 250th anniversary of independence. Thanks to the Builder-in-Chief, the White House will be properly glorified and remain in excellent condition for generations to come.”
It’s all an open contradiction of Trump’s public claims that the ballroom would be paid for by undisclosed bribes — sorry, donations — from his corporate allies and supplicants. Those donations never really materialized at scale, and instead the Post has found that the administration has redirected about $875 million in taxpayer funds to a “Repair and Restoration” account under the management of the White House Executive Residence, which benefits from a slew of disclosure and transparency exemptions regarding its spending. It’s a substantial increase, to say the least, from the roughly $2.5 million Congress would appropriate annually to the account before Trump’s return to office.
But while the White House can funnel cash into a home renovation slush fund, the law can still trip them up. Last week, a federal appeals court blocked ongoing construction of the ballroom. “The White House is the People’s House, and under the Constitution’s Property Clause, Congress exercises plenary control over the building and its surrounding land,” the judges wrote in a joint majority opinion. “Each President is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the
White House and its Executive Residence. The President has no — and claims no — constitutionally assigned authority over that property, which is designed and maintained for the use of all Presidents, current and future, and for the American people.”
In response, the Trump administration has filed an emergency plea with the Supreme Court to intervene on his behalf, and give him the ballroom he’s been obsessing over for the entirety of his term. It’s not yet clear if the court will intervene, but the president has already demonstrated that his policy toward “no” is generally to just do it anyway. There’s a gaping hole next to the White House, the East Wing is already gone — something will be built there. No matter what it is, it’s American taxpayers whose wallets are being pilfered.
