Top Senate Republican Makes Clear Most of $1 Billion Request For Trump’s Ballroom Won’t Actually Be Spent on the Ballroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) made clear that the $1 billion proposal from President Donald Trump‘s administration would not actually be spent on Trump’s White House ballroom.

Thune was among the GOP Senators who attended a closed-door lunch on Tuesday with Secret Service Director Sean Curran, who provided handouts that contained a breakdown of the ballroom funding allocations, according to Politico.

Reporters asked Thune to shed some light on the lunch conversations.

“So, the question I think that he was addressing was how is the money going to be used, the billion dollars, and so he walked through the various categories,” Thune recalled of Curran’s approach. “About 20 percent of that is going to be used to secure the modernization of the East Wing. Most of it is going to be used for other purposes.”

The “other purposes,” Thune said, include “training facilities, technology” and “lots of other things that law enforcement, particularly in this case, Secret Service, needs to ensure that they keep their president and other top officials safe.”

Thune called the lunch a “good back and forth” discussion as Senators strove to “get the details” and “precision” about how the money would be allocated.

“I think the director did a very good job of laying it out and developing the case for why these resources need to be used to update, modernize and make sure the security service is capable of doing its job — Secret Service, I should say,” Thune said.

Trump’s contested ballroom has faced a series of roadblocks, with a federal appeals court ruling he could continue with construction ahead of a June 5 hearing.

The decision put a temporary hold on an order from Judge Richard Leon, which allowed the president to proceed with construction of the underground “military complex” portion and above-ground site as “strictly necessary” for safety and security.

Watch above via C-SPAN.

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