Trump Is Reportedly Trying To Badger Senate Leader Into Firing Official Who Nixed Ballroom Funding

AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib

President Donald Trump is so incensed about funding for his ballroom project being dropped from the budget bill that he is trying to badger Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) into firing the Senate Parliamentarian, according to several media reports.

The ballroom has been a pet project for the president, who boasted last September that it would be “absolutely magnificent construction” and “one of the best anywhere in the world,” but it has sparked significant controversy, chiefly Trump’s broken promise that the construction “won’t interfere with the current building” and would be “near [the East Wing] but not touching it.” Very soon after Trump said that, the façade was demolished, then an additional major section, and eventually the East Wing was demolished in its entirety.

The president also initially touted projects as being funded by private donors, but the specifics remained murky, and the endeavor has raised ethical questions about conflicts of interest. After the attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Trump and other Republicans pushed for taxpayer funding for the ballroom.

The budget reconciliation bill, which is being pushed forward on a party-line vote by the GOP majority, includes $1 billion in funding for the Secret Service, with several hundred million dedicated to “modernization” and security upgrades to the ballroom project.

However, on Saturday, this plan hit a snag when the Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, made a determination that the budget rules blocked this $1 billion from being included in this bill.

It’s rare for the parliamentarian to attract any media attention. It’s a nonpartisan gig responsible for keeping track of the Senate’s myriad and arcane rules, and issuing determinations on their interpretation and application.

On Saturday, MacDonough ruled that Trump’s ballroom budget ran afoul of the “Byrd Rule,” which says non-budget items cannot pass with a simple majority. Republicans do not have enough of a majority in the Senate to beat a filibuster.

Senate Republicans said they would try again and revise the provision to comply with the Byrd Rule.

That is not enough to satisfy the president, who is pushing for MacDonough to be fired, and called Thune about it, according to a report by Burgess Everett and Shelby Talcott at Semafor.

Taylor Giorno and Al Weaver at NOTUS confirmed the Semafor report with their own sources, citing three people familiar with the request.

Trump called Thune “to express his frustrations with [MacDonough’s] decision” to block the ballroom funding and press the Senate Majority Leader to fire her, reported NOTUS.

“Thune declined to comment on whether the president asked him to oust MacDonough, saying he does not discuss their private conversations,” reported NOTUS, but he did clearly say “no” when asked if he was considering ousting her.

“We’re going through a process that we go through every time we have a reconciliation bill and the people on both sides are mad at the parliamentarian. That’s been true,” said Thune, but he was not going to fire her.

The White House had a similar response, with a spokesperson telling NOTUS, “We don’t comment on private conversations that may or may not have happened.”

Thune and Trump have sparred before over MacDonough with the same result, per NOTUS:

Last year, when Republicans were trying to get the president’s tax bill over the line through the same process, known as reconciliation, Trump allies called on Thune to fire MacDonough after she initially stripped out several Medicaid provisions.

Thune was steadfast then as well: He told reporters at the time he would not overrule or fire MacDonough.

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