Senators Warn Trump Is Redirecting Millions to White House Ballroom
https://newrepublic.com/post/212054/senators-warn-trump-redirecting-millions-white-house-ballroom
Senators Warn Trump Is Redirecting Millions to White House Ballroom
Trump’s budget office just shifted $352 million in Secret Service funds.
After being denied funds for his ballroom by Congress, President Trump may have secretly taken them from somewhere else.
Under the radar last week, the White House Office of Management and Budget moved $352 million earmarked for Secret Service resources, redirecting the funds to “White House Security Measures,” NOTUS reports. Those Secret Service funds had originally been set up by Trump’s tax law, the “Big Beautiful Bill,” passed last year.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress think the funds are being diverted to Trump’s ballroom project.
“I don’t know whether it’s the ballroom, but it sounds like the ballroom,” Democratic Senator Brian Schatz said to NOTUS.
“That’s a big problem,” Republican Senator Thom Tillis said. “That sounds like a different way to fund the East Wing project. If the East Wing needs support, we should be transparent about if that is in fact what happened. It seems strangely similar to the ask of Congress, but my God, we just had people from [the] Secret Service coming here saying they needed more money, how they needed more funding, and now we may be shifting it away from a Secret Service priority. I just need details. On its face it doesn’t sound right.”
Democratic Senator Chris Coons is also suspicious.
“I think there’s been more and more credible coverage that President Trump was just flat out lying when he said the taxpayers will not pay a dime for his ballroom,” Coons said. “I think he is now trying to find ways to funnel public money into it.”
Trump’s ballroom is expected to cost $600 million, and half of that cost will come from taxpayers, according to a Washington Post report earlier this week. Raiding the Secret Service’s funds would cover that and more. This wouldn’t be the first time Trump has raided his signature budget bill. His administration has previously used those funds to buy a luxury jet for former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and for “border security executive travel.”
When NOTUS asked an OMB official about the transfer of funds Wednesday, that official brought up the ballroom unprompted.
“The ballroom will be built with private donations the President has secured,” the official said in a statement to NOTUS. “The administration and the President have been very clear about the need for additional security at the White House complex and the role the Secret Service, in addition to other White House components, will play in supporting the necessary security elements associated with the East Wing Modernization project.”
JD Vance Is the Fall Guy for Trump’s Terrible Iran Deal
The vice president has been tasked with selling a lost war, potentially deepening a rift with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has stayed eerily quiet.
It seems that Vice President JD Vance has been chosen to carry the can for Donald Trump’s nascent peace deal with Iran. What could go wrong?
As the lead negotiator with Iran—who happens to be running a rocky press tour for his new book—Vance has become the face for the controversial deal, which critics are already calling a complete surrender.
Republicans too afraid to challenge Trump directly have been pointing the finger at Vance. Some Republicans who don’t hate the deal view this as a golden opportunity for Vance to play the peacemaker.
“Without question, the biggest potential political liability Vance had was the unpopularity of the war in Iran,” one person close to the White House who supports the deal told Politico Wednesday. “So it’s fascinating to watch his biggest enemies in the GOP unwittingly inoculate him from that liability by branding him as responsible for the peace deal.”
“He now gets to do a media tour defending the president—AKA the kingmaker of our party—from their idiotic criticism of the deal,” the person said. “While even his critics would acknowledge that the vice president is a smart guy, sometimes what really matters in politics is how stupid your enemies are.”
But is Vance washing away his sins or getting himself dirty?
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, another likely contender for a 2028 presidential run, has remained eerily quiet throughout the process of launching the deal. As the president’s national security adviser, he reportedly opposed the deal behind closed doors.
Iran has agreed to return to its prewar position of allowing the free movement of trade through the Strait of Hormuz and pledging not to produce or acquire a nuclear weapon. In return, they’ve won a range of exciting cash prizes: a $300 billion investment fund, sanctions relief, and the potential to implement tolls in the strait after just 60 days.
Trump’s deal is at the very least an off-ramp from an expensive and unpopular war—but it’s clear that for now, the United States is walking away with nothing. Vance will bear the brunt of whatever comes from the continued negotiations, and given the administration’s proven aptitude for striking deals, that could last well into midterm season.
Speaking at the G7 Summit Wednesday, Trump joked: “If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD. You better be careful, JD!”
Israel Can’t Believe Trump’s Total “Capitulation” in Iran Deal
Trump’s memorandum of understanding has left those in Israel gobsmacked.
Israel is reportedly in a state of shock over President Trump’s recently signed memorandum of understanding with Iran, which allows Iran to retain their ballistic missile arsenal, lifts sanctions, and admonishes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by calling for the termination of all military operations in Lebanon.
“It’s a bad agreement in which the Americans are paying with cash, and got, at the maximum, a letter of intent,” former Netanyahu adviser Yaakov Amidror told The New York Times. The Times of Israel’s editor, David Horowitz, called it a “catastrophic capitulation.” Israel’s Channel 12 news correspondent Nir Dvori even likened the deal to a “diplomatic Oct. 7.”
“Iran came out stronger, and I believe is now the regional hegemon,” former Israeli deputy national security adviser Chuck Freilich said. “They stood up to the U.S., the global superpower. They can have missiles, and there’s nothing in the agreement about the nuclear issue except [that] we’ll talk about it. This is an Iranian victory over the U.S. and Israel.”
Ensuring Iran is defenseless and economically crippled has been a priority for Israel for years. Trump’s recent deal all but assured that won’t happen. In the last 48 hours alone, the president has defended Iran’s right to have ballistic missiles, suggested that they should have the right to use nuclear power just like its neighbors, and criticized Israel for its deadly strikes in Lebanon—all which are points within the deal. And while it’s still unclear whether this is a temporary rift or a complete heel turn, this MOU endangers Israel’s long-term goals of a disarmed Iran and an occupied Lebanon.
Republicans in Uproar Over Trump’s Deal With Iran: “Total Surrender”
Republicans in Congress can’t believe the Trump administration accepted this deal.
President Trump’s deal with Iran is getting pushback from Republicans in Congress.
Senator Bill Cassidy, who lost a primary election to a Trump-backed opponent last month, said in a post on X Wednesday that “Ronald Reagan is rolling over in his grave.
“Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future. Now, Iran gets to build brand-new infrastructure under this deal,” Cassidy wrote. “Now, 13 Americans are dead, families have paid billions at the pump, sanctions will be lifted, and the bombing has stopped. This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”
Senator Ted Cruz tried to thread the needle of bashing the deal while minimizing blame toward the president.
“What has been released so far suggests that, unfortunately, the president is getting, I think, very poor advice when it comes to this deal. History teaches that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is a bad idea,” Cruz told Ben Domenech at the Daily Wire Wednesday. “Under the terms of what’s been released, somewhere between $10 billion and $30 billion will flow to the ayatollah immediately before they make even a single nuclear concession.”
Retiring Senator Thom Tillis said to The Hill that the deal was not a good return for the costs of the war with Iran.
“You got to do the balance of accounts: A hundred billion roughly, maybe more, spent today, 13 dead, 365 wounded, injured, our partners in the Middle East bombed, they’ve had casualties. There’s got to be a lot of return on that,” Tillis said. “We set out by saying we were going to drive down to zero their nuclear capability. Now we’re equivocating on that. We said that we were not going to make the mistake that Obama did by sending them a plane full of cash. I got to reconcile the numbers there.”
Some Republicans in the House were more blunt when speaking anonymously. The terms of the deal contradicted the talking points that the White House asked its Republican allies to use, Republicans told Politico.
One House Republican said the Trump administration was “lying to some degree” about the peace deal.
“The president didn’t mean to, but he effectively acknowledged he lost the war. It’s no longer worth the economic price. This is the way out, as ugly as it is,” another House Republican told the publication.
“He promised total surrender. And here it is,” a third House Republican said.
With all of this pushback to the deal, one wonders if Republican-controlled Congress will try to pass legislation to constrain parts of it, such as preventing taxpayer funds from being part of the $300 billion reconstruction fund promised to Iran. But most of them will probably fall in line as the midterms approach.
Trump Seriously Compares Himself to Hitler for Some Reason
The president made the comments after signing his memorandum of understanding with Iran.
President Trump shared a letter favorably comparing him to Adolf Hitler, Atilla the Hun, and other murderous leaders, just hours after signing his controversial memorandum of understanding with Iran at the Versailles Palace in France.
Trump shared a post on Truth Social, attributed to “Presidential Historian Dave King.”
“Donald Trump is, without question, the most powerful man that the planet has ever known- by a long way. Historically, powerful people were characterised by brutal conquest and the fear that they instilled in the populations that came under their influence. Common names that would come to mind are Alexander the Great, the Caesars, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Tamburlaine, Napoleon and, more recently, Hitler, Mao, and Stalin,” read the letter. “The overwhelming difference between each of the above when compared with President Trump is their lack of global reach. Their power was limited to restricted local areas (even though some of these areas were quite large in a local context). They had nowhere near the control over modern logistics, manpower, technology, and the global economic muscle that President Trump can enforce.
“Hitler repeated Napoleon’s mistake in Russia. Mao and Lenin had access to immense power within the Chinese and Russian populations and some of their satellite states. They maintained this power through fear and authoritarianism. But, they lacked the economic and technology resources of the new industrial power, the USA, which resulted in the Cold War and prevented them from ever having a meaningful global reach,” the letter continued. “Additionally, President Trump is the first leader to be willing to use that power on a global scale. That makes him by far the most powerful person that has EVER walked this planet.”
Trump took no issue with these hagiographic comments, even as they directly linked him to the likes of Hitler, Genghis Khan, Joseph Stalin, and more. “Sounds good to me!” he wrote above the post. Unsurprisingly, our 80-year-old president is happy about being compared to Hitler if it is in reference to how much power he has.
Everyone Hates JD Vance’s New Book
The early reviews are in, and they’re brutal.
The reviews are rolling in, and it’s clear that Vice President JD Vance’s new book, Communion, is not the next Hillbilly Elegy—not even close.
Ten years after Vance released his bestselling book that was made into a major motion picture, he has released Communion, a reflection on his late-in-life conversion to the Catholic faith that has already earned a meager 1.27 stars on Goodreads. Apparently reading it is painful.
“I got a colonoscopy on Friday,” Ginny Hogan wrote for The Cut. “If only that were the least pleasant experience of my last week. But no, that would be when I pulled an all-nighter on Monday reading Communion.”
“Vance’s hypocrisy alone makes Communion nearly unreadable,” Hogan wrote.
“You don’t need me to tell you this, but he is not a good Catholic,” she wrote. “A good Catholic would never support [Donald] Trump’s hateful immigration policies, cruel Medicaid cuts, hatred toward trans children, and unnecessary foreign wars.”
Hogan also criticized Vance for how he managed to say so much about second lady Usha Vance, “without saying anything at all.”
“Vance came to fame on his writing talent, and all he could muster to describe his wife of 12 years were ‘beauty’ and ‘intelligence.’ JD, ask ChatGPT for some synonyms! Be romantic,” Hogan wrote.
The Wall Street Journal’s Barton Swaim wrote that the book suffered from “egregious sloppiness.”
Swaim found that Vance oversimplified complex issues and misunderstood research he cited. “Whether Mr. Vance’s error arose from laziness or dishonesty or something else, I don’t know, but alas it typifies the low regard he has for people who profess views he dislikes,” he wrote.
The Atlantic’s Alexandra Petri similarly called out Vance’s frothy phrasing that seemed to lack any understanding of his source material. “Here’s Vance’s gloss on the Book of Job and the problem of suffering: ‘We are like golden retrievers trying to understand how an iPhone functions.’ Well, the Book of Job left me troubled, but that golden-retriever analogy has fixed things!”
And Christopher Howse, for The Telegraph, wrote that Communion simply “lacks the raw impact of Hillbilly Elegy.”
Tommy Tuberville Hit With Lawsuit Over Secret Life as Florida Man
The Republican senator is facing his biggest legal challenge in his attempt to become Alabama’s next governor.
Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville may not be eligible to run for governor in his home state, according to a lawsuit filed in state court Wednesday.
Tuberville, a former college football coach, is being accused of failing to meet the eligibility standard for state residency as outlined in Alabama’s constitution. Candidates have to live in the state for at least seven years in order to be eligible to run. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit say that Tuberville has “usurp[ed], intrude[d], into or unlawfully holds or exercises a public office.”
Tuberville sold all of his property in Alabama as of 2023 but has since claimed that he lives in a 1,500-square-foot property, which originally listed only his son and wife on the deed. Meanwhile, Tuberville’s wife was working as a real estate agent in Florida. He also voted in Florida in 2018.
Earlier this month, Tuberville’s gubernatorial campaign released tax documents claiming to prove that he has lived in the state since 2018, but critics such as Ken McFeeters, another Republican candidate, say that they don’t prove anything, claiming they aren’t accurate.
“I want his wife to tell me, with a straight face, that she lives in a one-bathroom house with her husband and adults and guests,” McFeeters told AL.com. “A woman like that is not going to share a bathroom.”
Those documents were enough for Tuberville to fend off a residency challenge from McFeeters to the Alabama Republican Party. The party’s 21-member steering committee ruled in Tuberville’s favor Sunday, saying he met the state’s residency requirements.
“We looked at it with the facts. The contest was unsuccessful. And Coach Tuberville will be our nominee for governor,” said the chair of the state Republican Party, Scott Stadthagen.
But this new lawsuit, assuming it goes to trial, will open up Tuberville’s records even further, and could result in new information coming to light in the discovery process. The public will find out if Tuberville is actually a Florida man.
MAGA Erupts in Fury as Full Text of Trump’s Iran Deal Is Revealed
Some of Trump’s biggest allies are outraged by the agreement he made with Iran.
The right is seething over the details of President Trump’s memorandum of understanding with Iran, seeing the decision as a massive capitulation to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The full text of the 14-point agreement was released Wednesday, revealing the United States will end its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, work with other countries to give Iran access to $300 billion to rebuild its infrastructure, and cease sanctions, among other concessions.
“I’ve heard from the president. I have tremendous respect for him. I’d like to hear from Marco Rubio, and I’d really like to hear from John Lee Ratcliffe on the intelligence of whether or not Iran thinks they got the better of us. Because I guarantee, we got the best intelligence community in the world. I’d be really interested in what [Iran’s] reaction to this MOU is. It might be. ‘I can’t believe we got this, because we were losing,’” former Republican Representative Trey Gowdy said on Fox News after the MOU was released. “We had an economic stranglehold on that country. So, when you go back to the status quo ante before the blockade, how are we better off? What did we get?”
Gowdy then claimed the pressures of low approval ratings and incoming midterm elections may have gotten to the president.
“Don’t we have midterms coming up? Are gas prices high? I mean, I hate to be cynical, but I don’t think it’s a national security document,” he said.
“Make no mistake: This MOU is a capitulation to the Iranian terrorist regime, potentially more dangerous than Obama’s JCPOA,” wrote Joel Griffith, a senior fellow at the conservative American Advancing Freedom and co-chair of Young Jewish Conservatives. “This will rejuvenate a terrorist regime with nuclear ambitions committed to global ideological domination through terrorism.”
“This is an American surrender,” MAGA commentator Erick Erickson said.
“This MOU with Iran does smack of the kind of appeasement that our administration rejected in the Obama-Iran nuclear deal and also when Joe Biden attempted to return to the politics of appeasement during his administration,” Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, posited. “I would urge the President to take a step back, continue the blockade and pursue a negotiated settlement that commits Iran to dismantling their nuclear program, dismantling this missile program, ends support for terrorist proxies and opens the strait. Failing that, we should let our Armed Forces finish the job on our terms.”
“Reagan is rolling over in his grave,” Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy wrote. “Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future.… Before the war, the strait was open, Iran was being crushed by sanctions, and 13 service members were still alive. Now, 13 Americans are dead, families have paid billions at the pump, sanctions will be lifted, and the bombing has stopped. This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”
“This MOU appears to be … a disaster that does not achieve any of the actual signal goals that were set by the administration at the beginning,” commentator Ben Shapiro said on Fox News. “There are effectively five goals that were set by the administration at the beginning. One was ending the nuclear program: not just nuclear weapons; no nuclear enrichment, zero enrichment, that is not in the deal. Ballistic missiles ended, that is not in the deal.… In my opinion, the vice president of the United States, the chief negotiator on this particular project, has not well served the president.”
Trump Says There Will Be No Consequences for Strike on Iran School
Instead, Trump punted to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
President Donald Trump refused to mete out consequences for the horrific U.S. missile strike in Iran that killed more than 175 people, most of them children.
During a press conference Wednesday at the G7 summit, Trump was asked whether he planned to hold anyone accountable for the attack on a girls primary school in Minab that killed dozens of young girls between the ages of seven and 12.
“No, if it was a fault—and as you know that’s under investigation—it’s such a strange question to be asked at this state because we’re talking about a long time ago,” Trump said. “Nobody did that on purpose.”
A preliminary inquiry found that the strike was the result of using outdated intelligence. Trump seemed to suggest that because the strike had been made in error, there was no reason to punish anyone.
Clearly, a deadly mistake warrants a response, and failing to respond in a timely manner is not in itself an excuse for doing nothing. If Trump were a real leader who valued human life, this would be unacceptable.
Instead, Trump insisted that one would have to examine how many soldiers Iranians had killed and chalked it all up to the cost of doing business.
“No mistakes are made. Yeah, war is nasty. But I know it’s under investigation, I could have a report for you tomorrow,” Trump said, adding that the question would be better directed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
More
than 100 days after the strike in Minab, the DOD’s investigation is now
complete and awaiting sign-off, military officials told The New York Times
Tuesday. The report became delayed as a result of the slow-moving
bureaucratic review process, the Pentagon’s efforts to save its own
skin, and intelligence and targeting agencies that couldn’t believe
their data could possibly be wrong.
After Months of War, Trump Says Iran Has Right to Nuclear Program
Trump now says it’s just “common sense” for Iran to have a nuclear program.
President Trump said Wednesday that Iran could have its own nuclear program.
“It is a little hard that when you say that somebody wants it, other people have it, other adjoining states have it, and you’re not letting them have it for purposes of electricity and things like that. It’s always a little tough. You have to use a little common sense,” Trump said at the G7 summit in France, alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
It seems to be a sharp departure from Trump’s previous claims during the war. After months of insisting that the purpose of the war was to get rid of any nuclear capability, demanding “zero enrichment,” Trump is now saying that the country can use nuclear power for electricity.
One wonders what Republicans in Congress—let alone the international community—will think of Trump’s latest concession. If a final peace deal between Iran and the U.S. doesn’t have any restrictions on the country’s nuclear program, it will be effectively worse than the 2015 JCPOA agreement with Iran.
That agreement was drafted not only between the U.S. and Iran, but the other members of the U.N. Security Council, including China, Russia, the U.K., and the European Union. This deal was negotiated without Congress even being aware of the details. Iran will likely be receiving $300 billion in reconstruction funds, and now they might have a nuclear program too. What did the Trump administration accomplish?
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