WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s ballroom project at the White House will cost as much as USD600 million, with more than half coming from taxpayers, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Trump had previously estimated the cost at USD400 million and repeatedly insisted that private donors — including himself — would foot the bill for the new building, a centerpiece of his drive to put his stamp on the US capital.
The newspaper cited a copy of a detailed cost estimate prepared for the Trump administration by Clark Construction, the contractor hired to build the ballroom.
The project began last year when Trump, with little warning and without consulting Congress, tore down the entire historic East Wing of the White House.
The White House insisted in a statement to AFP Tuesday that Trump and the donors were bearing most of the cost.
“President Trump and generous American patriots are funding the ballroom to the tune of approximately USD400 million, which will be a secure and appropriate venue for Presidents for generations to come,” spokesman Davis Ingle said.
An alleged plot to attack the White House during a cage fight attended by Trump and other top officials at the weekend “proves exactly why the East Wing Modernization Project is severely needed for large scale events,” he said.
Ingle added that the ballroom project was “inextricably tied” to presidential security and other security assets, which Trump says include drone ports on the roof and a hospital in the basement.
In late March, Trump reiterated to reporters that the project would cost up to USD400 million, calling it “tax-payer free.”
However, a summary prepared for the White House earlier that month already estimated the total cost at USD600 million, with only USD293 million coming from “private sources,” the Post said.
And when Trump made those comments in March, the administration had already approved more than a dozen payments of public funds to Clark Construction totaling tens of millions of dollars, the Post said, citing a log of the contractor’s invoices which it obtained.
When Trump first floated the idea of the ballroom he said it would cost USD200 million.
Democratic opponents of the president have pointed to the gilded ballroom and other costly renovation projects around the US capital as evidence that the billionaire leader is out of touch with everyday Americans.
Republicans fear that continued concerns among voters about the cost of living — especially soaring fuel costs due to the Iran war — could spell disaster in the November midterm elections.
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