President Donald Trump visited the construction site of his planned ballroom at the location of the former White House East Wing on Tuesday \u2014 days after about $1 billion in proposed security funding, some of which was for the ballroom, was ruled out of a Senate GOP reconciliation bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump visited the construction site of his planned ballroom at the site of the former White House East Wing on Tuesday \u2013 days after about $1 billion in proposed security funding, some of which for the ballroom, was ruled out of a Senate GOP reconciliation bill
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\u201cCongress is approving money for security, some of it may go here for additional security. I don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cBut for this building, I put up the money to build this building. Along with a lot of great patriots”\u00a0
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Trump\u2019s visit to the site comes days after the Senate parliamentarian determined that the $1 billion proposal for security additions at the White House grounds \u2013\u2013 including the ballroom \u2013\u2013 does not meet procedural rules
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Democrats said GOP senators would need to remove the measure from the immigration reconciliation bill, or else they would raise the Byrd Rule, which requires 60 votes to include “extraneous\u201d provisions or overrule the parliamentarian<\/p>\n
\u201cCongress is approving money for security. Some of it may go here for additional security. I don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cBut for this building, I put up the money to build this building, along with a lot of great patriots.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The White House previously shared a list<\/a> of tech, cryptocurrency and private equity companies, as well as members of his own administration, who had given donations.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Trump said that security features such as \u201ca shield that protects everything that\u2019s inside, everything that\u2019s on top\u201d were incorporated into the overall plans.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “This is a gift to the United States of America,\u201d Trump told reporters, \u201cand more than a gift, it’s going to be one of the most beautiful buildings that’s ever been built in the country or in Washington, D.C.”<\/p>\n With the sounds of construction in the background, Trump largely shared details about the project and took off-topic questions from reporters for about 45 minutes Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only budget change would be that we doubled the size at the request of the military,\u201d he said. \u201cWe doubled the size, but we’re right on budget, right on plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Initially<\/a>, the ballroom was projected to hold 650 people, but the plans were later revised<\/a> to fit 999 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump said that the additional space was needed to host world leaders visiting the White House in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c\u200b\u200bWe have no place to put them,\u201d he said.\u2029\u201dWe had the king and the queen the other day, and we had a thousand people wanted (to attend).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump said he hoped the ballroom, once completed, will be used for a century, and he noted that there would only be a few months left in his second term when the ballroom is expected to be completed.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is really for other presidents. This is not for me,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s visit to the site comes days after the Senate parliamentarian determined that the $1 billion proposal for security additions at the White House grounds \u2013\u2013\u00a0including the ballroom \u2013\u2013 does not meet procedural rules.<\/p>\n Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., shared a statement about the parliamentarian’s decision Saturday evening.\u00a0They said GOP senators must remove the measure from the immigration reconciliation bill or else Democrats would raise the Byrd Rule, which requires 60 votes to include “extraneous\u201d provisions or overrule the parliamentarian. They also said they would challenge any future attempts to include funding for the ballroom.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called the parliamentarian’s decision \u201ca win for the American people across the country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The National Trust for Historic Preservation is suing the Trump administration over the ballroom project in federal court, and a federal appeals court let construction continue last month<\/a>\u00a0ahead of a June 5 review.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In their most recent filing in the lawsuit last week, prosecutors contended that the ballroom is necessary for national security following three alleged assassination attempts on Trump within the past two years. Most recently, an armed California man was accused of storming last month<\/a>‘s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where Trump and other administration officials were in attendance.<\/p>\n \u201cThe assassination attempts make clear what Defendants have been explaining from the start of the case: Presidents need a secure space for significant events, which currently does not exist in Washington, D.C.,\u201d prosecutors wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump visited the construction site of his planned ballroom at the location of the former White…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2721,2723,9515,2722,4,450,171434,451,3,2725,111,452,453],"class_list":["post-653145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-all-markets-rank-everywhere","tag-app-for-your-consideration","tag-app-national-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-christina-santucci","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-nnt","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}