Republicans seek $1bn for Trump ballroom security in ICE funding bill

WASHINGTON, May 7. Senate Republicans on Monday added $1 billion in Secret Service security upgrades for President Donald Trump's White House ballroom to the $72 billion reconciliation package they plan to use to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection through 2029.

The money for the East Wing Modernization Project sits inside an immigration-enforcement bill that Republicans are routing through reconciliation, a partisan budget tool that lets them avoid the 60-vote filibuster. Democrats had blocked ICE and CBP funding for months after federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens earlier this year. Both agencies were left out of the bipartisan Department of Homeland Security funding bill that ended the longest government shutdown in U.S. history last week.

Text from the Senate Judiciary Committee directs the $1 billion to the Secret Service for "security adjustments and upgrades" within the perimeter fence of the White House compound, including "above-ground and below-ground security features." A separate clause bars the money from paying for any non-security elements of the project. None of the funds expire until September 30, 2029, well into the next president's first year in office.

The $1 billion sits on top of the $3.3 billion the Secret Service already received under the fiscal 2026 DHS funding law signed last Thursday. The wider package puts more than $60 billion into immigration enforcement and nearly $1.5 billion into the Department of Justice for terrorism prosecutions, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Marshals Service, U.S. attorneys' offices and the FBI. Republicans want the bill on Trump's desk by June 1, the deadline he has set.

Trump defends doubled price tag

Trump took to TruthSocial on Wednesday morning to defend the rising cost of a project he first pitched at $200 million last summer. The president said the figure had doubled because the venue was now twice the size and a higher quality than originally proposed.

"The only reason the cost has changed is because, after deep rooted studies, it is approximately twice the size, and a far higher quality, than the original proposal, which would not have been adequate to handle the necessary events, meetings, and even future Inaugurations," Trump wrote.

"The original price was 200 Million Dollars, the double sized, highest quality completed project will be something less than 400 Million Dollars. It will be magnificent, safe, and secure!" he added. He accused the press of failing to report that the work was running ahead of schedule and under budget.

The president did not address the $1 billion in security spending in his post. The White House has said construction itself will be paid for through private donations from Amazon, Google, Palantir and other firms. Public money, the administration argued, would only fund security.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle praised the new appropriation. "The White House applauds Congress's latest proposal in its reconciliation package which includes additional funding for security infrastructure upgrades in relation to the long overdue East Wing Modernization Project," Ingle said in a statement. He pointed to "the recent assassination attempt on President Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner" as the reason the Secret Service needed resources to "fully and completely harden the White House complex."

Correspondents' Dinner attempt fuels push

The renewed push to harden the White House traces back to April 25, when Cole Tomas Allen allegedly stormed the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton with guns and knives. Allen was charged with attempted assassination. Republican aides have cited the attack repeatedly to argue that a fortified, on-grounds event space is now a security necessity.

It is not clear how the Secret Service plans to spend $1 billion on the project. The figure is more than double the construction estimate. In court filings, the White House has said the East Wing site would be "heavily fortified," with bomb shelters, military installations and a medical facility under the ballroom. Trump has also called for bulletproof glass and protection from drone attacks.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the Senate Budget Committee chairman, has separately introduced a bill with Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., that would have taxpayers cover the construction itself. Graham said it "would be insane" to host the correspondents' dinner at a hotel again. That construction-funding idea has not gained wider Republican backing so far.

Democrats call it a vanity bill

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., attacked the inclusion in a post on X. "This is hypocrisy at its finest," Warren wrote. "Trump's gold-encrusted ballroom has gone from costing $200 million funded by shady donors to $1 BILLION from TAXPAYERS, snuck into the ICE bill by Senate Republicans."

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Republicans were sidestepping bipartisan appropriations to push through unpopular policies. "While Americans are struggling to make ends meet as a result of President Trump's failed policies, Republicans are focused on providing tens of billions of dollars for the President's vanity ballroom project and cruel mass deportation campaign," Durbin said. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., made a similar charge, saying Republicans were "funneling money into Trump's ballroom and throwing billions at two lawless agencies."

An aide to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, pushed back on the framing. The bill "does not fund ballroom construction," the aide told reporters. The bar on non-security spending is the legal hook Republicans are leaning on to keep that line.

Public opinion has not moved with the Republican leadership. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released last week found 56 percent of Americans opposed tearing down the East Wing for the ballroom. Twenty-eight percent supported it. The project also faces a court fight. A federal judge ruled last month that Congress had not properly authorized the project. The White House sees the new appropriation as helping to neutralize that ruling.

Path through the Senate

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the Senate Homeland Security chairman and a longtime skeptic of large funding boosts for ICE and CBP, has agreed to mark up his title of the package this month. Paul and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, were the only Senate Republicans to vote against the budget resolution that paved the way for the bill. "Senate Democrats refuse to vote for a single dollar to secure our borders or enforce our immigration laws, even against the most violent illegal aliens," Paul said in a statement explaining his decision to move ahead.

Republican leaders want to bring the package to a Senate floor vote in mid-May. The House has not released its companion text. Democrats plan to oppose every line of it, which will leave Republicans needing nearly unanimous backing in their own caucus to clear the chamber and meet Trump's June 1 target.