Democrats try to corner Republicans on $1 billion proposal for Trump’s ballroom: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to From the Politics Desk, a daily newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, Sahil Kapur previews how Democrats plan to attack Republicans over their next big reconciliation bill. Plus, we explore why seemingly everyone in MAGA world is desperate for a ticket to this summer’s UFC fight at the White House.

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— Adam Wollner

Democrats try to corner Republicans on $1 billion proposal for Trump’s ballroom

Analysis by Sahil Kapur

When Republicans released their $72 billion party-line bill to fund ICE and the Border Patrol, they included a provision to spend $1 billion in taxpayer funds for security tied to President Donald Trump’s ballroom project.

The legislation says the $1 billion is reserved “for the purposes of security adjustments and upgrades, including within the perimeter fence of the White House Compound to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to the East Wing Modernization Project, including above-ground and below-ground security features.”

“East Wing Modernization Project” is the official term for the ballroom, a word that doesn’t appear in the bill, after Trump had the East Wing demolished in October to make way for the renovation.

Now, Democrats are zeroing in on it as they plot their offensive against the Republican bill.

“That is what today’s Republicans have become: Ballroom Republicans — asking working families to pay the price while Donald Trump pockets the perks,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a letter to Democratic senators. “Let me make one thing very clear: Senate Democrats will not let them jam through this bill without making them answer for their endless cost hikes, health care cuts, and every dollar diverted from American families to Trump’s priorities.”

He promised “Byrd rule” challenges to knock out non-budgetary provisions and forcing votes on cost-related amendments designed to restore healthcare funds and reverse Trump’s tariffs.

The strategy is based on polling that shows Trump’s planned ballroom to be unpopular with Americans — even before the idea that taxpayers would be on the hook for funding it is introduced.

More than half of Americans (56%) opposed tearing down the East Wing to make way for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll taken April 24-28, while 28% supported it. Another 16% were unsure.

Trump has put Republicans in a bind, too, after he initially promised that taxpayer funds wouldn’t be used for the ballroom and that funding would be raised entirely from private sources.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told NBC News two weeks ago that he sees no need to use taxpayer money for the ballroom. He said he supports using private funds to pay for it and called on Democrats to authorize that.

Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., also expressed skepticism about putting taxpayers on the hook for the ballroom.

Their stances will be tested in the debate, as Democrats could try to strip out the ballroom money and put every Republican on record.

Two other votes to watch in the vote-a-rama: those of Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, the two most politically vulnerable Republicans in the 2026 elections. Both voted with Democrats for numerous cost-related amendments to the recent nonbinding budget measure that kicked off this process.

In a floor speech today, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., made the case for the package, labeling Democrats as anti-police for rejecting ICE and Border Patrol funding without restraints on their power.

“They are right back to a ‘defund the police’ position,” Thune said, before he noted that it is National Police Week.

He didn’t mention the ballroom.

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By Katherine Doyle, Courtney Kube, Dan De Luce, Abigail Williams, Colleen Long and Andrea Mitchell

President Donald Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with the Cuban government’s ability to maintain power despite months of sustained U.S. pressure, and he has been pressing his advisers about why his administration’s efforts to tip the regime into collapse haven’t yet succeeded, according to two U.S. officials, a former U.S. official and three people familiar with the discussions.

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How the UFC fight at the White House became the ‘hottest ticket in town’

By Jonathan Allen, Peter Nicholas, Matt Dixon, Henry J. Gomez and Allan Smith

As something of a professional Republican, April Melton has attended her fair share of ho-hum events in the nation’s capital. But there’s one coming up that Melton, the chair of the Black Hawk County, Iowa, GOP, is dying to see up close: an Ultimate Fighting Championship extravaganza on the South Lawn of the White House next month.

“How do we get tickets? Can you get me tickets?” Melton said, her eyes lighting up. “I want to go!”

So does nearly everyone else in the heavily overlapping worlds of President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement and mixed martial arts fandom.

In trademark fashion, Trump created insatiable demand for an event — held in conjunction with his 80th birthday on June 14 and a monthslong celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary — with a limited supply of tickets. Trump is handpicking most of the 4,000-plus spectators lucky enough, cunning enough or rich enough to score a seat on the South Lawn.

“I’m going to make a lot of enemies, because it’s impossible to get everyone tickets,” the president said Friday in a telephone interview.

Technically, all of the tickets are free, and UFC is footing the bill for the event. But sponsorship packages that include ringside seats have been selling for $1 million or more, according to a Republican lobbyist directly familiar with the process. One report put the figure at $1.5 million.

The cost hasn’t dampened enthusiasm for the fights in the top ranks of UFC, and demand for the elite passes to the South Lawn is through the roof.

“It’s crazy. It’s insane,” Dana White, the president and CEO of UFC, told NBC News outside last month’s black-tie White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

“I only took a handful of tickets; I gave the rest of them to President Trump,” White said. “I keep telling people I don’t have tickets.”

Even Trump’s family members are hearing from friends eager to get ringside.

“It’s so funny, because the only thing for the past four months that anyone has asked either of us for is a ticket to this UFC fight,” Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, said of herself and her husband, Eric. “I mean, it is the hottest ticket in town. This is going to be maybe the event of his presidency, if I’m being honest.”

Read more →

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.

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