O’Leary: ‘I don’t get’ Trump ballroom opposition
Investor Kevin O’Leary said Wednesday that he does not “get” why some people are opposed to President Trump’s desire for a sprawling ballroom on the site of the former East Wing of the White House.
“My lobbyist over here said the taxpayers are not paying for it. So then, why not let him have a ballroom?” he told Fox News at the Capitol. “I don’t get it.”
O’Leary, a Canadian businessman best known as one of the hosts on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” also voiced support for the ballroom as a beacon of the “American dream.”
“The British do a great job of pomp and circumstance. We don’t,” he said. “Let’s get that ballroom fired up and show the world, you know, the American dream. That’s what it is.”
Trump has long held that the 90,000-square-foot space is needed so future administrations can hold large state events indoors, rather than using outdoor tents as is typically done now.
But he has also framed it as a national security asset , often referencing upgrades set to coincide with the project, including the overhaul of a secretive military bunker deep underground.
“It’s drone-proof. It’s bulletproof glass. We need the ballroom. That’s why Secret Service, that’s why the military are demanding it,” Trump told reporters Saturday night after a gunman rushed security at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner.
“They wanted the ballroom for 150 years for lots of different reasons, but today is a little bit different because today we need levels of security that nobody has ever seen before,” the president added.
Authorities said the suspect, 31-year-old Cole Allen , was targeting Trump administration officials who were gathered with journalists and other public figures at the Washington Hilton hotel for the annual black-tie affair. No one was injured in the attack.
Allen was charged with attempting to assassinate the president and other firearm-related offenses and is due back in federal court Thursday for a detention hearing.
“I always hand it to the Secret Service on this because, I mean, it’s a moment’s notice,” O’Leary said. “No one was hurt, thank goodness. I think there’ll be a lot of investigations on that stuff. But I also wonder about long-term if that dinner is going to survive because providing the security for 2,600 people is next to impossible.”
Construction on the ballroom has been put on hold by a federal judge amid a challenge brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. The judge found that Trump lacked the authority to build the ballroom without receiving congressional approval.
The Justice Department is pressing the preservation group to drop its lawsuit in the wake of the WHCA dinner shooting, but the group has so far declined .
Meanwhile, a group of Republican senators, led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), is floating a proposal that would authorize as much as $400 million in taxpayer funding for construction, using national park user fees and customs fees to offset the cost.
Trump previously stated the project would be funded almost entirely by private donations.
Graham’s proposal received mixed reactions on Capitol Hill, with some Democratic and GOP lawmakers pushing back against the idea.
“Is it good politics to spend taxpayer dollars on a ballroom right before the election? Absolutely not,” one Republican senator, who requested anonymity to discuss the internal debate within the Senate GOP conference, told The Hill.
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