SECRET DOCS Expose Trump's Ballroom PAY-TO-PLAY Scheme?!?! - Legal AF

[Rhiannon12866]

Public Citizen Co-President Rob Weissman returns to talk to Court Accountability Action's Lisa Graves as part of their ongoing dialogue about corruption and the Trump administration. Today they discuss the protest outside of the party Larry Ellison and his son threw at the Institute for Peace to give Trump another made-up award as they seek to consolidate their takeover of CBS with the addition of CNN through the proposed Skydance/Paramount merger with Warner Brothers.

They also discuss new documents Public Citizen has obtained revealing the efforts by the Trump team to keep the public in the dark about the million-dollar donors to the White House ballroom monstrosity through anonymity agreements which attempt to block transparency and shield any quid pro quo activities. - 05/02/2026.

[applegrove]

1. I wonder if Lindsay Graham's request for $400 milliion

from Congress for that ballroom last week was so Trump could keep the private money: his bitcoin business and truthsocial are not doing well and probably have his net worth going way down.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. White House officials said that the legislation would authorize the entire project -- including the aboveground ballroom

Senate Republicans maintain their proposal would authorize security construction, but not Trump’s ballroom. The White House disagrees.

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/05/senate-budget-bill-trump-ballroom

Senate Republicans late Monday proposed $1 billion to pay for new White House security measures, with lawmakers and White House officials disagreeing over whether the legislation would cover President Donald Trump’s planned ballroom.

The proposed legislative text says the money would be used for both aboveground and underground security features that the administration has declined to fully detail. The text explicitly says the money could not be used for “non-security elements” of the project, a reference to Trump’s planned ballroom.....

White House officials said Tuesday that the legislation, if enacted, would authorize the entire project — including the aboveground ballroom.

“Congress has rightly recognized the need for these funds,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement, citing the high-profile incident last month when a gunman stormed through the security checkpoint outside the White House correspondents’ dinner. “The proposal would provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other critical missions for the USSS.”.....

Trump has argued that the ballroom itself is a needed national security measure so he and future presidents can safely entertain VIP guests, a message increasingly echoed by his allies in Congress after last month’s incident. Justice Department officials last week asked Leon to dissolve his order blocking construction, citing the shooting at the correspondents’ dinner in a rambling legal filing that read like one of Trump’s Truth Social posts.....

Democrats argued Tuesday that the proposal illustrates that Republicans are out of touch with voters’ needs, highlighting the broadly unpopular ballroom. Fifty-six percent of Americans oppose Trump’s decision to tear down the White House’s East Wing to make way for his planned ballroom, funded by about $400 million in private donations, while 28 percent support the project, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted last month.

trump will use the $1 billion for the entire project including the aboveground ballroom. There will be no funding by private donations.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Trump admin's official position is that almost EVERYTHING in the ballroom is security-related.

trump wants US taxpayers to pay the entire cost of the ballroom

Link to tweet

The reconciliation bill says that Trump can’t spend the $1 billion they gave him for the ballroom on “non-security” features.

But the Trump admin’s official position is that almost EVERYTHING in the ballroom — from the walls to the columns to the ceiling — is security-related.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Here is the text of the proposed bill

I disagree with trump's position

Link to tweet