A fight over a White House ballroom is turning into a national security showdown.
The Senate is gearing up for a battle over funding President Trump’s White House ballroom, which will take center stage when senators debate a budget reconciliation package this week to fund immigration enforcement operations through 2029.
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough dealt a major setback to Republicans on Saturday by ruling that their plan to provide hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for Trump’s ballroom violated the Senate’s Byrd Rule and could not pass the Senate with a simple majority.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) hailed the parliamentarian’s guidance as a big victory but Senate Republicans are not about to quit on one of Trump’s biggest priorities. GOP leaders are revising the language so that it can avoid a 60-vote threshold on the floor, setting up a likely showdown when senators start voting on the bill Thursday.
“Redraft. Refine. Resubmit. None of this is abnormal during a Byrd process,” Ryan Wrasse, a senior aide to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) posted on social media in response to the parliamentarian’s ruling.
Senate Democrats say they will try to knock any provision that could funnel taxpayer funding to the ballroom project if Republicans rewrite it.
“Republicans’ only focus has been funding Trump’s ballroom and throwing tens of billions more taxpayer dollars at ICE and Border Patrol without any reforms or accountability – all while providing $0 in cost relief to American families,” Schumer said in a joint statement with other senior Democrats in response to the parliamentarian’s guidance.
“Democrats are prepared to challenge any future language the Republicans try to pass to use taxpayer dollars to fund Trump’s ballroom,” they declared.
The brewing fight is a political headache for the GOP leadership and vulnerable Republicans who will have to take tough votes on keeping any ballroom funding that survives a Byrd-Rule challenge in the budget reconciliation package.
A group of Senate Republicans have privately made it clear to Thune that they don’t want to vote on providing up to $1 billion for Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom, but Thune is under pressure to deliver on one of Trump’s top priorities.
Sen Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s closest allies in the Senate, said the president constantly talks about the importance of building the ballroom in his conversations with the South Carolina senator.
Some Senate Republicans were crossing their fingers that the Senate parliamentarian will bail them out by knocking the ballroom funding out of the bill but Thune and Graham, the Senate Budget Committee chair, are going to try to save the $1 billion in funding the Judiciary Committee directed to the Secret Service to build security upgrades for the ballroom and around the White House campus.
GOP senators have vented their frustration to the GOP leadership over having to take tough votes to defend the ballroom money, which Schumer is calling “Trump’s palace.”
“I don’t think they have the votes for it,” one GOP lawmaker of the ballroom money.
Four Republican senators spoke up at a lunch meeting last week to complain about the political predicament posed by voting to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money on a ballroom, according to a person familiar with the discussion.
A second GOP senator said Republican colleagues were hoping that the Senate parliamentarian would quash the funding for the ballroom and spare them a debate over the subject this week.
“There’s a lot of discomfort because of the amount” of money “and it came up out of the blue and it was supposed to be privately funded,” the senator said.
“Those are the kinds of questions people are asking. If it gets ‘Byrded’ out, I don’t think some people are going to cry about it,” the source added, referring to a potential ruling by the parliamentarian to knock the provision out of the bill.
The Senate parliamentarian’s office began hearing arguments from Republican and Democratic aides over the ballroom funding on Friday.
Senate Democrats say they’re planning to tee off on vulnerable GOP senators, such as Susan Collins (Maine), Dan Sullivan (Alaska) and Jon Husted (Ohio), by forcing them to take several votes on reallocating the money for the ballroom to other priorities, such as lowering out-of-pocket healthcare costs.
“It’s terrible politics, that’s why we’re going to beat them up on it at every opportunity,” a Democratic senator said of the strategy heading into this week’s marathon series of votes to amend the budget reconciliation package.
“I would think we have at least a few” amendments to strip out money for the White House ballroom and redirect it to other priorities, the senator said. “It’s not going to be one” amendment.
“We’re going to beat that baby up,” the lawmaker added, predicting that vulnerable Republicans such as Collins and Sullivan will be under heavy pressure to strip out the controversial funding.
Schumer is gearing up to launch his attacks on what he’s calling “the ballroom Republicans.”
“Trump said not one penny of federal money would be used for the ballroom. Well, give me a break, another lie,” Schumer said at a press conference last week. “These ballroom Republicans are choosing Trump’s chandelier over your child’s care.”
“A CNN poll … said 77 percent say that Trump has raised their costs. What is the GOP response? A billion-dollar ballroom. Fancy. Gold-plated,” Schumer said.
He said the reconciliation package “sticks taxpayers with a bill for Trump’s billion-dollar ballroom,” comparing the White House project to Versailles, the opulent residence of French King Louis XIV.
“Trump said not one penny of federal money would be used for the ballroom. Well, give me a break, another lie,” Schumer said. “These ballroom Republicans are choosing Trump’s chandelier over your child’s care.”
The ballroom funding plays right into the Democrats’ strategy of using this week’s vote-a-rama on amendments to the reconciliation package to highlight the issue of affordability, the same one they employed during last month’s debate on the budget resolution.
During last month’s late-night series of budget votes, Collins and Sullivan — two of the Democrats’ top political targets — voted for several Democratic-sponsored amendments to address high healthcare and food costs.
Thune worked behind the scenes last week on a deal to ensure that funding for security upgrades at the White House, including the ballroom, has enough GOP support to stay in the bill, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) has proposed an amendment that he says would offset the cost of security upgrades at the White House and for the East Wing modernization by reducing the total amount of money allocated in the other parts of the bill, including to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol.
Senate Republican leaders invited Secret Service Director Sean Curran to speak to GOP senators at lunch last week to provide more detail on how the money would be used.
Thune says that only $200 million of the funding would go to security upgrades for the ballroom, but budget experts say there are few real limitations on how the executive branch can spend money provided in a reconciliation package.
By comparison, funding provided through the regular appropriations process gives senators and House lawmakers more say in how it’s spent.
Senate GOP leaders may rework the language providing funding to the Secret Service to omit any direct reference to the East Wing Modernization project, which is how the ballroom construction project is described in the pending legislative text.
But the problem with eliminating any reference to the ballroom in the bill is that it would complicate the efforts of White House lawyers to argue in court that Congress has authorized the new ballroom through legislation.
A Democratic senator said Republicans are now working to “reframe” the ballroom language in the bill.
“You got a lot of slush fund stuff going on so maybe the words ‘East Wing’ disappear,” the senator predicted.
“The way this plays [out] is if they have something that is more explicit, it serves them better in court to say, ‘Congress has approved this,’ so yes they can proceed despite not getting their approval from the board that’s supposed to look over federal properties,” the senator added.
Trump warns judge against sacrificing national security by blocking White House ballroom, drone base
Trump blasts lawsuit, obstruction of $400 million White House ballroom, rooftop DronePort
Trump gives exclusive tour of White House Ballroom project
President Donald Trump offers an exclusive look at the White House Ballroom project, discussing its innovative design and its role as a secure venue for formal events. Trump states it's a gift to America, funded by patriots, providing ample space for up to 2,000 guests, ensuring the safety of leaders for generations to come.
President Donald Trump is warning against obstruction of the $400 million White House ballroom and rooftop drone base, directly calling out U.S. District Judge Richard Leon for giving in to a "serial plaintiff" and a "ridiculous lawsuit" putting U.S. national security at risk.
"The DronePort at the White House Ballroom will be, perhaps, the most sophisticated anywhere in the World!" Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social. "It will safeguard our Nation’s Capital, Washington, D.C., long into the future.
"Judge Richard Leon should stop playing games with America’s Security!"
Trump urged Leon to dismiss the lawsuit from a person he described as a "highly litigious woman," warning the judge would be "held responsible" if an attack hits the White House.
FEDERAL JUDGE QUESTIONS TRUMP AUTHORITY ON WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM PROJECT
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"If anything happens, he will be held responsible for the Death and Destruction caused to our Country," Trump added. "He has already created enough problems by allowing 'Top Secret' information to be released and exposed based on a ridiculous lawsuit started by a highly litigious woman (serial plaintiff!) whose 'strolling,' in her opinion, will be disturbed by the new, desperately needed structure – In any event, a woman who has absolutely no STANDING!
"With the advent of highly sophisticated, and powerful, modern day weaponry, we can no longer defend Washington, D.C., with rifles and pistols, alone. This ridiculous lawsuit must be dismissed, IMMEDIATELY!" Trump added.
The post came as the Justice Department again pressed Leon to lift an injunction that has held up parts of the project, arguing in a court filing that a shooting outside a White House checkpoint earlier this month underscored the need for stronger security measures at the executive mansion.
TRUMP PULLS BACK CURTAIN ON WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM’S FORTRESS-LIKE DEFENSES ABOVE AND DEEP BELOW
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"In light of the recent attacks against President Trump’s life — including two attempts in less than a month — the injunction entered by this Court for the benefit of a strolling woman, who filed suit against the East Wing Project long before she knew what was going to be built (This is a woman who is a known serial plaintiff throughout Washington, D.C.), and who has absolutely no standing, must be immediately vacated, and this suit, which is a complete embarrassment to our Country, must be dismissed," acting Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in the five-page filing.
"This is a terrible, tremendously harmful case to the United States of America, and all it stands for!" .
The gunman who opened fire at the White House checkpoint was shot by officers and later died at a hospital.
Leon ruled in April that Trump lacked the legal authority to build the ballroom without congressional approval. He issued an injunction halting "above-ground construction of the planned ballroom," though an appeals court quickly put that order on hold, allowing construction to continue until June.
The lawsuit was brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization. The group has said it would not drop the case, even after the Justice Department cited a foiled attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April as a reason to dissolve the injunction and dismiss the lawsuit.
Trump previously disclosed that the ballroom project would include a rooftop drone base and a six-story underground military complex with a hospital and research facilities.
President Donald Trump has overseen ongoing construction of the underground military fortress that is going to be below the $400 million privately funded East Wing ballroom. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
During a tour with reporters , Trump said the ballroom’s roof would be built for military use and designed to withstand a direct attack.
"The entire roof is built for military," Trump said. "They have a massive drone capacity. Not only is it drone-proof, if a drone hits it, it bounces off, it won’t have any impact. But it’s also meant as a drone port that would protect all of Washington."
The proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom would dwarf the historic White House complex and has become a flashpoint in a broader fight over presidential authority, security spending and the preservation of historic federal buildings.
WHITE HOUSE SAYS EAST WING DEMOLITION WAS NECESSARY DUE TO STRUCTURAL ISSUES
President Donald Trump shared a rendering of the proposed White House ballroom on Truth Social on Feb. 3, 2026. (Copyright Donald Trump/Truth Social)
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Trump has argued that the ballroom is necessary to host large events of up to 1,000 people in a secure location, saying current White House entertainment spaces are too small.
The White House has said the project’s security features include titanium fencing, hardened roofing, thick special glass and underground facilities. Trump told reporters the roof would be made of "impenetrable steel," and said the fencing was strong enough that "a bulldozer cannot knock it over."
