WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans say they will move forward with a proposal to give the Secret Service up to $1 billion for security upgrades to Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project, arguing that more security is needed for the president after a man was charged with trying to assassinate him last month.
Republican senators returning to Washington on Monday faced questions about the plan, which would spend taxpayer dollars to secure the East
Wing project after Trump had said it would only be paid for with private donations. He has said the construction would cost around $400 million, but the White House had not previously proposed a number for security costs.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the total is “what it costs to protect the President of the United States in a very dangerous time and a dangerous world.”
“Keeping the leader of the free world safe is an expensive proposition,” Thune said. ”The Secret Service has a job to defend and protect the president, and we need to make sure they have the tools to do it.”
Democrats say they will try and defeat the plan, which Republicans added to a partisan spending bill that would restore funding for immigration enforcement agencies that the Democrats have blocked since February.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a letter to colleagues Monday that they will push Republicans to strip the security money, noting that Trump said a few months ago not one penny of taxpayer money would be used for the ballroom.
“Well, give me a break. He’s put a billion dollars in the budget for it. This staggering waste of taxpayer dollars has nothing, nothing to do with security and everything to do with Trump’s ego,” Schumer said.
Republicans are using a partisan budget maneuver to push the spending legislation through Congress without any Democratic votes. But it is still unclear if the security money will have enough backing among Republicans to advance, as some have said they are not yet ready to support it.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she wants clarification on how the funding would be used from the Secret Service Director Sean Curran, who is expected to attend a closed-door lunch with GOP senators Tuesday. Collins said the ballroom should be paid for with private donations, “as the president had indicated.”
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., also said the funding should be private. “That's still my preference,” he said, adding that Congress had also increased the Secret Service budget after the attempted assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, during the 2024 campaign.
“Was it spent wisely? Do they really need more at this time?” Paul asked. "And a lot of people think this might be papering over for the, you know, the ballroom.”
Other Senate Republicans said they would support the request. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said he had “no problem” with it. Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis said the private funding would go for construction of the ballroom, but “the security part, there’s a role for the taxpayers.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was also expected to attend the Republican lunch Tuesday as some House Republicans were already questioning whether they could support the Senate plan. The House has not yet released its own bill.
Republican Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia said last week that he would look at the Senate security proposal “very carefully and make sure those things are in the national interest.”
Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., also said he wanted to hear more details. He asked colleagues to recognize the “volatile times” and the need to ensure the president, members of Congress and guests can gather in a safe location.
"If Republican and Democratic members can take a step back and say this is a real security issue, then maybe it will get done. But if Democrats dig in, it’ll be really challenging to pass that, as you can only imagine,” Haridopolos said.
Schumer said Democrats will push the Senate parliamentarian to strike the ballroom security money from the budget bill and offer amendments that force Republicans to vote on it if it remains in the legislation when voting is expected to begin next week.
Lawmakers in both parties were looking for more detail about how the money would be spent. The Senate bill would designate the money for the U.S. Secret Service, including for “security adjustments and upgrades” related to the ballroom project, but there was little additional detail.
The legislation says the money would support enhancements to the ballroom project, “including above-ground and below-ground security features,” but specifies it may not be used for non-security elements.
The White House has said in court documents that the East Wing project would be “heavily fortified,” including bomb shelters, military installations and a medical facility underneath the ballroom. Trump has said it should include bulletproof glass and be able to repel drone attacks.
Trump said Friday that the money would be for “many of the projects" and it wouldn't all be for the ballroom.
“They want to do certain things militarily with respect to the ballroom, having nothing to do with us or having to do with the safety of the president,” Trump said. “So having to do with a lot of things, but we are going to have a safe ballroom.”
