Senate Republicans Refuse to Fund Trump’s Ballroom in Spending Bill

Senate Republicans decided not to allocate federal funds to Donald Trump’s ballroom project in the latest draft of their budget reconciliation bill on Wednesday, in a blow to the president’s architectural takeover of the nation’s capital.

Before the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” overshadowed it, Trump’s ballroom project was the clearest example of how his solipsism was hurting American taxpayers.

The White House said the ballroom was needed for security purposes, and initially claimed it would be funded with approximately $200 million from Trump and “other patriot donors.”

That number later doubled to $400 million, before ballooning to a $1 billion funding request for White House security—part of which would go toward the ballroom.

Despite badgering by Trump that the ballroom was especially needed after a gunman attempted to sprint through a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents Association dinner at the Washington Hilton in April, using taxpayer money on a ballroom was deemed unnecessary by nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough in May.

Trump then tried to get MacDonough fired, while his administration submitted court documents claiming the ballroom was somehow “under budget.”

Four Republican senators—Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina—publicly voiced opposition to public money going to the vanity project in May. A larger group inside the GOP were privately against the ballroom, according to five anonymous insiders who spoke with Politico. And most GOP senators were likely worried Democrats would put them on the record about whether they supported public funds going to the ballroom during the filibuster process.

Trump’s “anti-weaponization fund” has also recently been discarded after he faced public pressure and legal challenges to it.

The Senate began voting to begin discussing their reconciliation bill Wednesday at 2:15 p.m. Eastern Time. The bill’s primary impact would be to fully fund the Department of Homeland security through the end of Trump’s second term.

Marco Rubio just refused to provide a clear answer regarding the administration’s plans for Cuba.

The state secretary appeared before Congress Wednesday for the second day in a row as part of the executive branch’s efforts to defend its $2.2 trillion budget request for 2027. But Rubio’s seemingly endless talking points abruptly ended when he was asked a yes or no question by Representative Jonathan Jackson about whether the White House will invade Cuba.

“In closing, I’d like to ask you, will you invade Cuba?” asked Jackson.

“Well, I have one second to answer. What do I do?” mused Rubio.

“Will you invade Cuba?” pressed Jackson.

“That’s not the only thing you said,” Rubio said, before committee Chairman Brian Mast took the reins of the exchange.

Rubio never provided a deeper explanation on the president’s aims for Cuba, but attacking America’s Communist Caribbean neighbor is apparently not off the table.

Donald Trump told reporters at the White House in March—while Cuba was struggling with an unprecedented economic crisis made worse by America’s Venezuelan oil blockade—that he expected to have the “honor” of “taking Cuba in some form.”

“I do believe I’ll be … having the honor ​of taking Cuba. That’s a big honor. Taking Cuba in some form,” Trump said at the time. “I ​mean, whether I free it, take it. Think I can do anything I want with it. You want to know the truth.”

Months later, in May, White House officials told Politico that what had originated as mild musings had since morphed into a genuine interest inside the Oval Office.

“The mood has definitely changed,” the person familiar with the White House’s discussions said. “The initial idea on Cuba was that the leadership was weak and that the combination of stepped-up sanctions enforcement, really an oil blockade, and clear U.S. military wins in Venezuela and Iran would scare the Cubans into making a deal. Now Iran has gone sideways, and the Cubans are proving much tougher than originally thought. So now military action is on the table in a way that it wasn’t before.”

The conversations took place around the same time that the Justice Department indicted Cuba’s former President Raúl Castro, sparking concerns that the Trump administration would extract and abduct him as it did former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent repeatedly refused to acknowledge Donald Trump’s blatantly corrupt stock trading under fierce questioning by Senator Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday.

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Warren hammered Bessent for pushing to end congressional stock trading, while Trump made more than 3,400 stock trades worth more than a quarter of a billion dollars in the first three months of 2026 alone.

“So, Secretary Bessent, you and I agree that it is a conflict of interest for members of Congress to trade stocks. Do you also agree that it’s a conflict of interest for President Trump to trade stocks?” Warren asked.

“President Trump is not sitting in the Oval Office engaging in high frequency trading strategy, clearly he had an outside manager who was doing that,” Bessent said. “I think it’s incumbent upon both houses of Congress to get their house in order before you move to the administrative branch—”

“You’re a Wall Street guy, so you know better,” Warren said. “The investments that President Trump has made are not blind.”

The Massachusetts Democrat explained that Trump had signed a 113-page document listing all of his individual stock trades, while simultaneously making policy decisions that affected those stocks. “So you’re going to sit here with a straight face and say it’s not a conflict of interest for the president of the United States to do that?” she asked.

“I am going to say this body needs to get its house in order first, I would encourage you to do that—” Bessent said.

“I don’t trade in individual stocks. I don’t own any individual stocks,” Warren said. “My house is in order, thank you Mr. Secretary.”

Warren questioned Bessent about Trump’s purchase of between $500,000 and $1 million worth of Nvidia stock one week before his administration moved to loosen export restrictions, allowing the sale of Nvidia chips to China and causing the stock price to soar. The senator asked whether the SEC should knock on Trump’s door to investigate this trade, but Bessent continued with his obstinate denials.

“Please lead by example,” Bessent said.

“I would like to see the president of the United States lead by example,” Warren said.

Warren also asked about Trump’s purchase of tens of thousands of dollars of stock in the Bank of New York (BNY) and its partner Robinhood. Shortly after his purchase, the Treasury Department announced that the Trump accounts would be managed through, you guessed it, BNY and its partner Robinhood.

“If these stock purchases that Trump made were made using inside information, would that be illegal?” Warren asked. Clearly, the answer would be yes, but Bessent played dumb.

“Again, I’m not a lawyer,” Bessent said.

“Would it be worth investigating?” Warren asked.

“Why don’t we investigate many people on this committee?” Bessent said smiling.

The secretary has good reason to avoid condemning Trump’s blatant corruption—he appears to be instrumental in pulling it off.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to claim Wednesday that he had never seen President Trump fall asleep. It didn’t go well for him.

Democratic Representative Ted Lieu confronted Rubio in a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, saying that “you’ve been at more than one meeting where President Trump has fallen asleep.” Rubio audaciously claimed that was false.

“I’ve never seen him fall asleep. On the contrary, the guy doesn’t sleep, which is a big problem ’cause he calls me at two in the morning, he calls me at five in the morning, and you know, I like to sleep a little bit, maybe not 12 hours, but at least six—” Rubio said, going on a tangent about Trump’s late-night habits before Lieu cut him off.

“Secretary Rubio, I’m going to show you in a moment a video that shows you just lied to Congress,” Lieu said, going on to play a video of Rubio speaking at a Cabinet meeting in May while Trump dozes off next to him.

“You are literally talking about issues of war and peace, and Donald Trump is sleeping right next to you. If Donald Trump cannot stay awake at these important meetings where the cameras are rolling, imagine what he’s like when the cameras are not there,” Lieu said. “So I’m gonna ask you, have you been at classified meetings where Donald Trump has fallen asleep or had trouble staying awake?”

Rubio doubled down, repeating that he’d never seen Trump fall asleep and that Trump wasn’t sleeping in the clip Lieu showed.

“So you’re lying again? You’re lying consistently to Congress. You’re lying to Congress, Secretary Rubio,” Lieu replied. Lieu went on to show two more videos of Trump falling asleep, including one most recently at a Memorial Day event for fallen soldiers.

Lieu hammered Rubio as his time concluded, saying, “Instead of holding North Korean–style Cabinet meetings where everyone goes around the room kissing Donald Trump’s ass, I’m gonna ask you to come clean with the American people and the White House, as well: There’s something wrong with Donald Trump’s health or cognitive abilities. There’s a reason he keeps going to the hospital and they keep giving him cognitive tests. We have not seen the president in eight days. The American people deserve the truth.”

Rubio dismissed Lieu, calling his words absurd and ridiculous and making absurd claims about Trump “working inhumane hours” and taking shots at President Biden’s cognitive abilities. But the videos didn’t lie, and Rubio’s pronouncements, as confident as they sounded, looked hollow next to video evidence of Trump repeatedly dozing off. It’s quite obvious Rubio is covering for his boss.

Once a fraudster, always a fraudster.

George Santos is under investigation for placing bets that he would not attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, and then not attending.

Ahead of the State of the Union in February, the disgraced ex–Long Island representative posted a video announcing his intention to appear at the Capitol. His post sent the odds of his appearance soaring on the prediction market site Kalshi, which may be better known for sports betting. Then he skipped the event.

“Watching SOTU from an airport tv was not part of the plan! FML,” Santos wrote on X.

But Santos had already placed bets that he would not appear on Kalshi, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told NPR Tuesday. They alleged that Santos misled the public, and then earned tens of thousands of dollars through insider trading.

Kalshi referred the case to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Justice, which have both opened cases into Santos, according to two people familiar with the investigation.

When contacted by NPR, Santos responded: “Well, that’s news to me.”

In a post on X Tuesday, the former politico appeared to dismiss the reporting. “I hate to disappoint but I don’t engage with rag reporting anymore.… Business as usual on my end haters! 💋” Santos wrote.

The rise of prediction market sites such as Kalshi and Polymarket have invited a wave of apparent insider trading in politics. Among campaign staffers, betting on the success or failure of political candidates has become commonplace. In late April, Kalshi banned and fined several political candidates after a company probe found they had bet on themselves.

Earlier this year, federal prosecutors charged an active-duty Army soldier involved in the planning and capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro for allegedly using confidential intel to win $400,000 on Polymarket predictions related to the raid.