MAGA Senator Has No Interest in Using Taxpayer Money on Trump’s Ballroom: ‘We Have $39 Trillion in Debt’

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has been a longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, but he is not onboard the push from some of his congressional Republican colleagues to spend taxpayer funds on his ballroom project.

Scott served as Florida Governor for two terms and endorsed Trump for president in 2016 after he won the Florida primary; he also chaired a Super PAC that supported Trump that year. In 2018, Scott was term-limited from running for governor again and ran for Senate, getting Trump’s endorsement and defeating the then-incumbent, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL).

The ballroom Trump wants to build where the White House’s East Wing once stood has been controversial for numerous reasons, including the hasty demolition of the East Wing, questions about the transparency of the financing through private donors, criticisms of the design, and concerns about the potential cost to taxpayers.

For months, the president has discussed the ballroom project as something that would be funded with private donations. But in the wake of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — and Trump’s renewed calls for the ballroom as a secure event facility — Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Katie Britt (R-AL) have come forward in favor of legislation to authorize spending taxpayer money on it.

Scott, however, was adamantly opposed to that idea when asked about it by NBC News senior national political reporter Sahil Kapur.

“I don’t know why you would do it, if it’s all funded” with “private money,” Kapur reported Scott told him, with the senator saying he still thought private funding was the way to move forward with the project.

“We have $39 trillion of debt,” Scott added. “Maybe we ought to stop spending money.”

In a later report, Kapur added that Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) had added his name to Graham and Britt’s bill.

Joining Scott in remaining opposed to spending taxpayer funds on the ballroom were Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Josh Hawley (R-MO), wrote Kapur:

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said there’s a legal question about whether Congress has to vote to allow the White House to do major reconstruction on the White House property. But when it comes to funding, he said he prefers private over public funds.

“I think that the donors should all be public, but I don’t know why, if you’ve got private donors who want to do it … I prefer that to the taxpayer being on the hook,” he said. “But I think it’s a separate question as to whether we need to authorize it.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he too doesn’t favor using taxpayer funds for the new ballroom.

“I am always conservative, and he already has the money,” Paul said. “And I’m not against putting in reconciliation and doing a nominal amount. I’m not for funding the whole $500 million. I think he’s already raised the money through private means.”

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