Senate Republicans have added a billion dollars to a must-pass immigration bill for President Trump’s East Wing ballroom, which was supposed to be financed entirely with private donations. The billion is part of a $70 billion reconciliation package that finances the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats have blocked some of that funding to negotiate restraints on ICE abuses.
The White House excuse for the sudden shift to public ballroom funding, echoed by Republican Senate leaders, is that the apparent assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ dinner at the Washington Hilton underscores the need for increased security improvements at the White House. Of course, the two issues have no connection.
There have been no security lapses at the White House that would be remedied by construction of a massive ballroom. Even Trump cannot command all private events where he speaks to move to the executive mansion complex. Unless Trump plans to remain a prisoner of the White House, the ballroom doesn’t address the genuine lapses that have occurred elsewhere.
If Trump wanted to jam his allies in Congress and hand Democrats a winning issue, he could not have done better than this one. Democrats plan to demand a separate vote on the billion dollars for the ballroom.
Republican leaders have contended that the new White House funding in the bill is only for enhanced security and not for the ballroom, but the language seems to define the entire ballroom project as needed for security. Trump’s ballroom is now tied up in court. Federal Judge Richard Leon has held that it can proceed only with approval from Congress.
This legislation would presumably clear that obstacle, except the language tries to pretend that the public money is only for security and not for the ballroom itself. They can’t have it both ways. As Judge Leon wrote, “National security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity.”
“Republicans are on a different planet than American families,” Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in a social media post. “Republicans looked at families drowning in bills and decided what they really needed was more raids and a Trump ballroom.”
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In the Senate, Republicans hold a narrow 53-47 majority. Several vulnerable Republicans are up for re-election in close races, including Susan Collins of Maine, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, John Husted of Ohio, and John Cornyn of Texas, if he manages to win his primary. In addition, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky have often voted against the president. Trump can only lose three.
Either way, Trump loses. If he does manage to whip Republicans to have taxpayers finance his ballroom, he hands Democrats a winning issue. Alternatively, if several Republicans defect and the bill goes down, he demonstrates just how his narcissism weakens his hold on his party allies.
Yesterday, Republican voters in Indiana seemed to hand Trump a victory when they voted to oust several state legislators who had refused to do Trump’s bidding and vote for a gerrymander bill. Trump had endorsed and campaigned for their MAGA opponents.
But victories inside the party can translate to general-election defeats, since Trump loyalists are an ever-shrinking share of the general electorate, and the causes that Trump represents get screwier by the day. In nearby Michigan, in a special election, voters elected Democrat Chedrick Greene, a Saginaw firefighter, to a swing blue-collar state Senate seat, with 60 percent of the vote, keeping the Senate with a slim Democratic majority.
Nor can Trump primary disloyal Republican senators as they head into a close general election. Nothing symbolizes Trump’s dwindling hold on reality better than his billion-dollar ballroom and his demands that increasingly vulnerable Republicans use taxpayer money to finance it.
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