{"id":303,"date":"2026-05-25T21:09:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T21:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=303"},"modified":"2026-05-25T21:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T21:09:34","slug":"who-will-pay-for-trumps-pet-projects-taxpayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=303","title":{"rendered":"Who will pay for Trump\u2019s pet projects? Taxpayers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nA version of this story appeared in CNN\u2019s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free <\/em>here<\/em>.<\/em>\n<\/p>

Read more RFK Jr. terminates heads of preventive services task force amid overhaul<\/a><\/p>\n

\n President Donald Trump frequently boasts that his projects are ahead of schedule, under budget and saving taxpayers money.\n <\/p>\n

\n But following the money invariably leads back to the taxpayers.\n <\/p>\n

\n Who will pay for the ballroom?\n<\/h2>\n

\n Not just donors.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump has long promised the massive ballroom he plans to add to the White House would be paid for by him and with private donations.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is all my money and donors\u2019 money,\u201d he told reporters Tuesday in front of the construction site as hammers and machinery banged in the background.\n <\/p>\n

\n But while Trump views the ballroom as his and his donors\u2019 \u201cgift\u201d to the country, he\u2019ll need taxpayers to chip in too. Trump is looking for a $220 million check from Senate Republicans, who would have to pass it on a party-line vote \u2014 which has already run into some challenges. That\u2019s larger than the originally advertised total cost of the project, whose size, scope and price tag have ballooned.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump said requests from the military and the Secret Service made the project larger and more expensive.\n <\/p>\n

\n Who will pay for the \u2018anti-weaponization fund\u2019?\n<\/h2>\n

\n The US Treasury.\n <\/p>\n

\n In exchange for the president dropping a lawsuit against his own government, the Trump administration is expected to allot nearly $1.8 billion from an effectively unlimited US government \u201cJudgment Fund\u201d for people who say they were targeted by the Justice Department.\n <\/p>\n

\n Vice President JD Vance refused Tuesday to rule out the idea that rioters convicted of attacking police officers on January 6, 2021, could be compensated.\n <\/p>\n

\n Critics of the fund, he said, should consider that there are many different \u201cpots of money\u201d and that the administration could both help everyday Americans and make amends to people he said were \u201cmistreated by the last administration.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe question all of us ask every single day is, \u2018How do we make our fellow citizens more prosperous?\u2019\u201d Vance said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Congress could theoretically step in to put guardrails on payments from a fund that it created in the 1950s to settle lawsuits, but it\u2019s not clear it will.\n <\/p>\n

\n Previous presidents have used the fund in ways that angered Trump. The Obama administration, for instance, tapped the Judgment Fund to settle a decades-old dispute with Iran over a failed arms deal and to kickstart the deal by which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear aspirations.\n <\/p>\n

\n Who will pay for the Iran war?\n<\/h2>\n
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\"Two<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nTwo women and a child sit in ruins at Al-Shajara Al-Tayyiba School on May 13, 2026, in Tehran, Iran.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Majid Saeedi\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Trump later withdrew the US from that deal, and now he\u2019s engaged in an undeclared war on Iran. His administration has not said how much that war \u2014 which is in ceasefire mode \u2014 will cost, although Trump has mused about taking Iran\u2019s oil and making \u201cplenty of money.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n One Pentagon official recently said $29 billion in taxpayer dollars had already been spent, but that seems likely to be far lower than the war\u2019s ultimate cost.\n <\/p>

Read more Trump seeks redemption in Cuba after his regime-change failure in Iran<\/a><\/p>\n

\n When is something \u2018fully financed\u2019?\n<\/h2>\n
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\"Portraits<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nPortraits of President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance are seen inside the Hall of Nations as a worker vacuums at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on February 2, 2026, in Washington, DC.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Jabin Botsford\/The Washington Post\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n While there are real questions about paying for the war, Congress has already given the president $257 million to rehab the Kennedy Center, which in Trump\u2019s real estate developer language translates into having the project \u201cfully financed,\u201d even though taxpayers are on the hook.\n <\/p>\n

\n He used that same term, \u201cfully financed,\u201d last October during an event he hosted for wealthy donors and corporations that chipped in for the ballroom.\n <\/p>\n

\n The White House released a list of donors, many of them tech companies with business before the government, but has not detailed their donations. At least one donation may have been made under duress. Trump settled a lawsuit with YouTube over suspension of his account years ago in exchange for a to the ballroom project, according to court documents filed last year.\n <\/p>\n

\n What about the arch? The statue garden? The Reflecting Pool paint job?\n<\/h2>\n
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\"Workers<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nWorkers apply a blue protective coating as part of a renovation project to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on May 8, 2026.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Rahmat Gul\/AP<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Back when he was hosting donors at the White House, Trump predicted there would be money left he could use to construct a triumphal arch in a traffic circle in front of Arlington National Cemetery.\n <\/p>\n

\n But it turns out that taxpayers will be paying for some portion of the arch. Democrats have noted that millions in taxpayer funds Congress appropriated to the National Endowment for the Humanities could go to the arch.\n <\/p>\n

\n The administration has also looked to the humanities budget to pay for Trump\u2019s planned \u201cGarden of Heroes.\u201d The garden, which is meant to feature 250 life-size statues of notable Americans, is, like the arch, meant to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The government has already earmarked around $74 million for the garden, according to a recent CNN report, and is also looking for additional donations both for the garden and for Trump\u2019s controversial vision of turning a local DC golf course into a championship links.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s plan to beautify the Reflecting Pool between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument by painting it blue is also running into issues. Trump originally bragged the work could be done for less than $2 million, but a CNN review of federal contracting data shows that more than $13 million has been allocated for the project.\n <\/p>\n

\n An expensive free gift\n<\/h2>\n

\n The Air Force is preparing to unveil a new-to-Trump Air Force One that was donated by Qatar. The US government\u2019s acceptance of the $400 million plane raised ethical questions and also flirted with violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Trump defended getting a free gift, although accepting the plane ended up being quite expensive.\n <\/p>\n

\nCNN reported funds to modify the plane \u2014 hundreds of millions of dollars \u2014 were diverted from Sentinel, a behind-schedule nuclear weapons modernization effort. The plane is meant only to be a bridge to the next iteration of Air Force One, which is also behind schedule. A new fleet of planes to transport the president is expected after Trump leaves office.\n <\/p>\n

\n Taxpayers paid to upgrade the jet, but Trump heaped thanks on Qatar.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI could be a stupid person (and) say, \u2018No, we don\u2019t want a free, very expensive airplane.\u2019 But it was \u2014 I thought it was a great gesture,\u201d Trump said last May.\n <\/p>\n

\n That wasn\u2019t the last time Trump raised the question of intelligence when pressed about money. This month he called a reporter \u201cdumb\u201d when she asked about the doubling cost of the ballroom, despite Trump\u2019s repeated claims that it is on schedule and under budget.\n <\/p>

Read more Should you worry about the Ebola outbreak? Here\u2019s what the numbers tell us<\/a><\/p>\n

\n \u201cI doubled the size of it, you dumb person,\u201d he said on the White House lawn.\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump frequently boasts that his projects are ahead of schedule, under budget and saving taxpayers money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nWho will pay for Trump\u2019s pet projects? Taxpayers - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=303\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who will pay for Trump\u2019s pet projects? 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