Trump ballroom to cost $600 million, with half paid by taxpayers, report says

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Jun 16, 2026

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President Donald Trump’s glitzy new White House ballroom is reportedly now expected to cost $600 million, with more than half the bill footed by American taxpayers, not private donors, according to a leaked estimate from contractors.

The skyrocketing price tag amounts to a 50% increase from the most recent estimates provided by Trump, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Six estimates produced before March by Clark Construction, the Maryland-based contracting firm overseeing the project, say internal documents have always projected a much higher cost than Trump has claimed, the Post reported.

Trump initially said the ballroom would cost $200 million, but has since conceded it will run up to about $400 million, which he denied amounted to a cost overrun and instead attributed to his decision to double the size of the planned new space.

He continues to claim that the costs will be funded entirely by private donors, not the public, although he later proposed $1 billion in additional so-called security improvements that would be paid for by taxpayers.

The new expose suggests those claims were not true. It says about $307 million of the estimated $600 million is expected to come from various federal agencies, including the Secret Service, apparently by juggling funds that were initially allocated for other projects.

The half-completed ballroom project is also the subject of a lawsuit filed by critics who seek to block it on the grounds that Congress never approved it.

A federal judge ordered construction halted on the above-ground portion of it, but that ruling was put on hold by an appeals court panel that is expected to issue a ruling soon. The White House would likely appeal a loss to the conservative-dominated Supreme Court.

So far, the Republican-led Congress has declined to approve funds for the ballroom, with some GOP lawmakers pointing to Trump’s claims that he has secured all the needed funds from private donors.

An effort to add the $1 billion in ballroom funding to a party-line immigration enforcement spending bill failed with many Republicans nervous about political blowback with the midterms looming.

Meanwhile, another Trump project in the nation’s capital is mired in new controversy as algae growth has quickly returned to the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall just days after the president ordered it repainted dark “American flag blue.”

Workers Wednesday poured chemicals into the pool, which has turned an unsightly green in the steamy D.C. summer heat.

The White House used emergency powers usually reserved for life-and-death matters to fast track a no-bid $14 million contract for the paint job, which reports say included a much higher premium for the contractor than usual.

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