A federal judge is expected to soon rule on whether President Donald Trump’s planned $400 million White House ballroom project can proceed, zeroing in on whether the administration’s plan to rely on private donations allows it to bypass congressional approval.
Trump has argued that the approach spares taxpayers the expense, but the dispute has instead highlighted a lack of transparency over how the project is being financed. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, congressional Democrats and watchdog groups have questioned an arrangement that relies on donations from corporations with business before the federal government, funneled through a nonprofit intermediary that stands to collect millions of dollars in fees, to fund the most significant alteration to the White House in decades.
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