Senate Judiciary Republicans have included $1 billion in taxpayer funding for security enhancements linked to President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project in a major immigration and border security reconciliation package, despite previous assurances from Trump that the ballroom would be funded entirely through private donations.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released its portion of the reconciliation package late May 4. It allocates funding for Secret Service “security adjustments and upgrades” connected to the East Wing Modernization Project, which includes Trump’s proposed ballroom addition.
The proposal specifies that the money would fund “above-ground and below-ground security features” within the White House perimeter and could not be used for “non-security elements” of the project. The funding would remain available through Sept. 30, 2029, extending beyond the end of Trump’s term.
The security funding appears within a broader $72 billion Senate Judiciary Republican reconciliation package focused on immigration enforcement and border security.
Trump has described the roughly 22,000-square-foot ballroom as a privately financed project expected to cost around $400 million. Speaking from the Oval Office in November 2025, Trump said “not one penny” of taxpayer dollars “will be donated to this.” In a January Truth Social post, Trump called the ballroom a “GIFT” to the U.S., intended to provide “a desperately needed space.”
The White House originally estimated the ballroom project would cost around $200 million. But amid reports that Trump had quietly increased the projected cost, he defended the new amount in a May 6 Truth Social post, saying the ballroom had been expanded and upgraded from the original concept.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 6, 2026
“The White House Ballroom is going up rapidly on the East side of the White House,” Trump wrote. “The only reason the cost has changed is because, after deep rooted studies, it is approximately twice the size, and a far higher quality, than the original proposal.”
The newly proposed security funding exceeds Trump’s $400 million estimate for the ballroom project by more than double, though some Senate Republicans emphasized that the money is not intended for construction itself.
According to Politico, Clare Slattery, a spokesperson for Grassley, R-Iowa, said the bill “does not fund ballroom construction” but instead “provides funds for Secret Service enhancements that will ensure all presidents, their families, and their staffs are adequately protected.”
The White House also defended the funding’s inclusion in the package.
“The White House applauds Congress’s latest proposal in its reconciliation package which includes additional funding for security infrastructure upgrades in relation to the long overdue East Wing Modernization Project,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement to Politico. “Congress has rightly recognized the need for these funds.”
Since the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooting, Trump has increasingly framed the ballroom as necessary to strengthen White House security. As Zeale News previously reported, he said in an interview shortly after the attack that the ballroom would have bulletproof glass and a single fortified entrance.
Senate Democrats quickly criticized the GOP for including the funding.
“Republicans are on a different planet than American families,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on X. “Republicans looked at families drowning in bills and decided what they really needed was more raids and a Trump ballroom.”
FOX News noted that any funding tied to the ballroom could be seen as a “slight to some Republicans” who had argued the latest reconciliation package should focus on affordability issues, aid for farmers, or spending cuts.
According to Politico, GOP leaders are aiming to send the legislation to Trump’s desk by the end of the month.