Where the Hell Did Trump Get This $70 Million for His Ballroom?

President Donald Trump is sneakily spending close to a billion dollars on White House renovations using mostly taxpayer funds, making an end run around Congress and public disclosure. 

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the Trump administration pulled money from other government agencies and private donors, and then steered that cash into an account that usually holds a few million dollars for routine White House maintenance, known as “White House Repair and Restoration.” 

But since Trump took office last year, the administration has funneled $875 million to that account. That money consists of transfers from the U.S. Secret Service and the White House Military Office of about $500 million, with $305 billion from private donations. Another $70 million was also directed to the account, according to documents reviewed by the Post, but the source isn’t identified.  

In all, Trump plans to spend at least $900 million on “modernization projects” on White House grounds, including a helipad, improvements to Lafayette Square, a new visitor screening center, and the White House ballroom that was ruled illegal in federal court last week, with Trump planning to appeal. 

Trump’s ballroom was estimated to cost $600 million (up from $200 million when he first announced the project). Taxpayers will pay for about half of that latest figure, contradicting the president’s promise that the vast majority of it would be paid for by private donations. 

All of this is unprecedented, as in previous administrations, requests for White House renovations were submitted as requests to Congress and then put through the appropriations process before agencies sought approvals and hired contractors. But Trump seems more preoccupied with construction and redevelopment projects in his second term as president than he is with the daily business of leading the country. He regularly falls asleep during important meetings and ceremonies, but musters up excitement to check on his various pet projects. 

President Donald Trump wants to pretend that his plane-switching ruse didn’t leave members of the press vulnerable to an attack from Iran.

While speaking to reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews Tuesday night, the president faced a tough question about his plane-swapping farce.

“Why was it too dangerous for you to fly on Air Force One, but not too dangerous for the press?” one reporter asked.

“Well, I don’t know. I think actually, the plane that I flew on was at greater risk. I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane that they would be more likely to go for,” Trump said.

Trump’s explanation is nonsense.

When Trump departed the NATO summit in Turkey last month, the press reported that the president would fly with them aboard the original Air Force One.

Meanwhile, the president secretly changed planes in order to evade a credible assassination threat from Iran. Members of the press and some staff members remained on the plane, none the wiser—and evidently vulnerable to attack. Given the reportedly tiny circle of people who knew about the plan, it’s highly unlikely that Iran knew, either.

Several top administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller were also left aboard the decoy plane.

Pillow magnate and election denier Mike Lindell won’t accept his loss in Minnesota’s gubernatorial primary, claiming there are anomalies in the voting numbers.

Despite President Donald Trump’s endorsement, Lindell lost to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa DeMuth by about 11 percentage points and more than 45,000 votes. On Tuesday night, when a reporter asked him on his livestream LindellTV if he’d concede the race after the Associated Press called it for DeMuth, Lindell said, “Why would I listen to the AP?”

“There’s 265,000 votes left to count. I’m down by 18,000 now,” Lindell ranted. “I’m not going to give up this race until the votes are counted. That’s nonsense.”

Lindell is a leading 2020 election conspiracist and consistently casts doubt on election results, so it’s expected that he would dispute his own loss. Trump tried to give him an eleventh hour boost on Tuesday, posting on Truth Social about how “Mike Lindell deserves a BIG WIN IN MINNESOTA today.

“Nobody has worked harder, and given up so much, in fighting for free and fair Elections. Go out, NOW, and VOTE for Mike Lindell for Governor. He will not let you down. Thank you! President DJT,” Trump wrote.

Democratic Representative Ted Lieu mocked Lindell and his election conspiracies on X after the news of his loss, posting, “Many people say Venezuela rigged the election against Mike Lindell because they don’t like his pillows. Never seen anything like it.”

Now Minnesota is guaranteed to have its first ever female governor come January, as Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar handily won the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Meanwhile, Lindell will have to go back to his struggling pillow business, which he stepped away from to run for office.

President Trump has long cast Washington D.C. as a disgusting, violent hellhole of a city that wasn’t safe for living until he called in the National Guard last year. Now new reporting from the Washington Post calls that claim into question.

The Post found what experts had long suspected—that the numbers Trump so often touted—an 88 to 92 percent decrease in crime and an 18 percent decrease in homicides—were due to a downward trend in crime that appeared long before the National Guard did. Not only that, but the study notes an increase in assaults with a dangerous weapon.

Local leadership doesn’t share Homan’s sentiment.

You see how this looks, right?

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has reportedly gained as much as $2.9 million from his fossil fuel interests since being tapped to join the high court.

Alito’s reported assets—excluding his home and other personal property—grew from $1.1 million in 2005 to between $3.4 million and $8.4 million in 2024, according to federal financial disclosures. During that period, his oil and gas holdings have made him between $390,000 and $2.9 million, according to an analysis by Court Accountability, The Guardian reported Tuesday.*

And as the Supreme Court prepares to hear a fossil fuels-related case, that brings Alito’s ability to be impartial into question, Court Accountability co-founder Lisa Graves warned.

“You might have real appreciation for how that industry has helped make it possible for you to perhaps buy a second home on the water, or live a [certain] lifestyle,” said Graves, who put together the analysis.

Alito, who is the only Supreme Court justice with holdings in energy companies, has refused to step back from the upcoming petition brought by fossil fuel giants Suncor and ExxonMobil. He previously recused himself from a petition from the same companies in 2023,. The new case will determine whether municipal and state governments can seek damages for decades of Big Oil deception regarding the climate harms these companies knew their fossil fuel products would cause—a make or break decision for Alito’s second stream of income.

Most of Alito’s financial gains came from property in Grady County, Oklahoma, in which his wife, Martha Ann, holds a mineral interest. Alito has reported the value of the plot between $100,000 and $250,000, but Graves noted that one of Alito’s family members had sold an adjacent plot for $800,000, suggesting that the jurist could be underreporting the land’s value.

In 2022, Alito’s wife agreed to lease the plot of land to Citizen Energy, a private oil and gas company. No reporting or public documents indicate that a well has been drilled on this property, but a lease agreement shows that the owners would have received three-sixteenths of the profit from any extracted oil.

“It raises concerns because you have a sitting justice who is hoping to get richer based on oil exploration of this land,” said Graves.

Citizen Energy was later purchased by Validus Energy, in which Elliott Investment Management holds a major stake. Alito previously landed in hot water after he failed to disclose a free plane ride he took from Elliott Investment Management’s founder. The firm also owns more than 52 million shares of Suncor, which are worth more than $3.2 billion, according to Court Accountability.

Alito has major investments in Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF, a high dividend yield fund in which Exxon is the third-largest holding. In 2004, Alito inherited between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of stock in Exxon—which he has since sold.

“My view is that you shouldn’t be able to sell a stock just so you can sit on a case, even though that company’s profits have benefited you,” said Graves.

In May, a coalition of watchdog groups—including environmental, civil liberties, and good government organizations—sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee calling for an investigation into whether Alito’s refusal to recuse in this case violates federal law.

The court is expected to hear oral arguments on October 5.

* This article originally misstated the amount Alito has made from his oil and gas holdings.