U.S Sen. Richard Blumenthal is clashing with President Donald Trump over the construction of the White House ballroom in a continuation of their long-running feud on multiple issues.

The latest dust-up involves Blumenthal’s inquiry into corporations and wealthy individuals who contributed more than $300 million for the new ballroom, and a threat by the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Texas to launch an investigation into Blumenthal’s probe.

In a back-and-forth exchange of letters, Blumenthal and U.S. Attorney Aaron F. Reitz told each other to preserve documents that could be used in investigations.

When Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate in January, Blumenthal will have increased power to investigate the White House on a variety of issues.

“The Trump administration is so afraid of transparency and oversight that they are weaponizing the Department of Justice to baselessly target Congress in direct violation of the Constitution,” Blumenthal said. “As incoming chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, I will not be intimidated, and I will work on behalf of the American people to vigorously pursue investigations into this administration’s persistent misuse of taxpayer dollars and any corporate entity that has enabled their boundless corruption.”

The letters were released publicly in a clash that is expected to continue into next year.

“I am aware of your letter, posted to X today, which purports to initiate an investigation into me for conducting a congressional inquiry,” Blumenthal wrote. “This is just the latest in a series of unlawful actions on the part of the Trump Administration attempting to intimidate members of Congress for engaging in constitutionally protected activity. Your implied threat of an investigation is baseless.”

Blumenthal added, “The public deserves to know the terms under which dozens of American companies were persuaded to donate millions of dollars to the President’s vanity projects, and whether lawsuits were dismissed, contracts were awarded, or regulations went unenforced in exchange for that money. The public deserves transparency about whether the White House and the corporations it cajoled extracted favors at the expense of American taxpayers.”

In this case, he told Reitz, who had served as chief of staff to conservative Republican U.S. Ted Cruz, to preserve records about the ballroom donors. Blumenthal has referred to the ballroom as “the President’s centerpiece vanity project” among others in Washington, D.C.

“Since you appear to have evidence of the Trump Administration’s efforts to protect corporate donors and Administration officials from legitimate oversight, I accordingly direct you to preserve all records and correspondence, including all communications with the White House or senior officials at the Department of Justice, related to the decision to draft and post your letter,” Blumenthal wrote in a three-paragraph letter.

In the same way, Reitz in turn told Blumenthal to preserve records about his own inquiry. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Reitz wrote, “After the election, Sen. Blumenthal & his allies think they can intimidate Americans for their constitutionally protected associations w/ President Trump. Congress is not a weapon to be wielded against the American people. I’m taking the first step to stop this abuse of power.”

He then posted his letter to Blumenthal, saying that Blumenthal had “threatened citizens for associating themselves with the President and other public officials” regarding “philanthropic practices that will benefit our nation for generations.” If Blumenthal refuses to preserve the documents, Reitz wrote, he could face “significant legal consequences.”

Blumenthal sent letters recently to high-level corporate donors who were mentioned in The Washington Post on the issue. The contributors to the ballroom included Chuck Robbins, chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems; Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff; Charlie Ergen, co-founder, chairman, president and CEO of Echostar Corporation; Bill McDermott, chairman and CEO of ServiceNow; the Paul E. Singer Foundation; Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Kraken; Jeff Miller, founder of Miller Strategies; Ambassador Joseph Popolo Jr.; and Connie S. Smith, president of SCS Smith Family Foundation, among others. The inquiry called for records, documents, and communications concerning the ballroom.

History

For years, Trump has criticized Blumenthal regarding the Vietnam War.

The issue has erupted multiple times, including in 2018 during an escalating battle over U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Blumenthal — who had been among the leading voices challenging the Kavanaugh nomination before he was confirmed and ascended to the court — joined seven other Democratic senators who pushed for additional witnesses to be interviewed over the sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh. Blumenthal was also among a large group of members of Congress suing Trump, saying he was violating the Constitution by doing business with foreign leaders while in office.

Trump, in a tweet and in comments at the time at a White House news conference, pointed to Blumenthal’s “fraudulent service in Vietnam.”

“For 12 years he told the people of Connecticut, as their Attorney General, that he was a great Marine War Hero,’’ Trump tweeted, adding that Blumenthal is a “total phony.’’

Trump sought to discredit Democrats criticizing the Kavanaugh nomination and returned to Blumenthal’s military service. Trump also gave Blumenthal the nickname of “Da Nang Richard,’’ referring to a port city in South Vietnam that was known for intense fighting during the Vietnam War.

“He never went to Vietnam. … He lied. I don’t mean a little bit,’’ Trump said. “Here’s a guy who lied, and now he’s up there talking like he’s holier than thou.”

Blumenthal’s supporters say that Trump has repeatedly mischaracterized the Connecticut senator’s statements about Vietnam. Blumenthal apologized during his 2010 Senate campaign for statements he made that he served in Vietnam when he had actually served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and did not fight in the war.

Besides Vietnam, Trump battled for years over control of the Empire State Building in New York City with the Malkin family, which is headed by Blumenthal’s 92-year-old father-in-law, Peter Malkin. A longtime Greenwich resident, Malkin has had multiple outside pursuits, including serving as the founder of nonprofit Greenwich Green & Clean that pushed for cleaning and beautifying the affluent town.

The Vietnam issue erupted again last year after Blumenthal criticized then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi during a public hearing on Capitol Hill. That clash prompted Trump to call for an investigation into Blumenthal regarding his military record. Blumenthal admitted to misspeaking, but some veterans at the time said they had never heard Blumenthal misspeak on the issue.

Former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, who served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and was running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate, said at the time that he had never heard Blumenthal claim that he had served in Vietnam.

Trump called for an investigation into Blumenthal’s statements about Vietnam, saying the senator detailed his time in the jungle and long battles, but Blumenthal had not done that.

After the initial story broke in The New York Times in 2010, Blumenthal held a news conference at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in West Hartford with veterans from various branches of the service standing with him.

“On a few occasions, I have misspoken about my service, and I regret that,” he said. “But I will not allow anyone to take a few misplaced words and impugn my record of service to my country. I served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves, and I am proud of it.”

Later, Blumenthal said, “The people of Connecticut have always known my record and they know me, which is why they’ve elected me to the Senate three times.”

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