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Senator Richard Blumenthal is requesting information from an architect hired to oversee the ballroom design and people invited to a donor dinner with the president.
Kenneth P. Vogel has investigated President Trump’s fund-raising apparatus and the interests of the donors to it. He reported from Washington.
Dec. 22, 2025
Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut wants to know who is funding President Trump’s White House ballroom project, how much it is going to cost and what it is going to look like.
Mr. Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a raft of letters on Monday seeking information from people who were reportedly invited to a White House dinner for donors to the ballroom project.
He also sent a letter requesting design plans and cost estimates from an architect who was hired recently to oversee the project after Mr. Trump had clashed with the original designer over the size and scope of the ballroom on a short timeline.
As the cost and scale of the project have expanded, so too have concerns about preserving a historically significant building and potential conflicts of interest related to Mr. Trump’s ability to use the levers of government to help the people and corporations who are financing the project.
When he announced the ballroom in July, Mr. Trump estimated that it would cost $200 million and would be able to host events for about 650 people, while claiming that it would not touch the existing structure and boasting that it would be paid for by private donors.
In October, he demolished the East Wing of the building entirely to make way for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom that could seat more than 1,000 people and that he said would cost $300 million.
