The Ballroom: Blumenthal Wants the Donor Receipts

Photo: Tomasz Zielonka via Unsplash

Donald Trump is building a ballroom at the White House, and he is paying for it with three hundred and thirty million dollars from donors he will not name. Fourteen of them, so far, have been asked to come forward. By the United States Senate. Senator Richard Blumenthal wrote to all fourteen on October 21, and he gave them a deadline: produce the records voluntarily by January 4, or face a subpoena when Democrats take the Senate in January.

Let that sink in. A president is tearing down part of the White House and rebuilding it with money from secret donors, and the American people are not allowed to know who those donors are. The ballroom is not a small project. It is a massive addition to the most famous house in the country, paid for by people whose names are being kept secret, and we only know about it because a senator started asking questions.

Here is what Blumenthal actually asked for. He wants the records. Who gave, how much they gave, and what, if anything, they were promised in return. That is not an unreasonable request. It is the basic question at the heart of every scandal about money in politics. When a president takes hundreds of millions of dollars from undisclosed donors, the public deserves to know whose money it is, and what those donors expect to get for it.

The deadline matters. January 4 is not a random date. It is the last chance for these donors to hand over the records voluntarily, before the new Senate takes over and the request becomes a subpoena. Blumenthal is not bluffing. He has been clear that if they do not cooperate, the Senate will compel them to. The question is whether they will come forward on their own, or whether they will wait to be dragged into the light.

Think about what it means that the donors are secret in the first place. These are not small contributions. Three hundred and thirty million dollars does not come from a raffle. It comes from people and companies with interests before the federal government, people who stand to gain from a president who owes them a favor. When the money is secret, the favors are secret too. That is the whole point of keeping the names hidden.

Trump has always treated the presidency like a business, and the ballroom is the latest example. He is building it because he wants one, and because he can, and because the people paying for it benefit from his presidency. The ballroom is not a gift to the country. It is a monument to a president who believes the White House belongs to him, and to the donors who are paying to keep it that way.

Blumenthal gave them until January 4. That is the date to watch. If the donors hand over the records, the public will finally learn who is paying, and what they want in return. If they do not, the new Senate will subpoena them, and the names will come out anyway. Either way, the secret is not going to hold. Three hundred and thirty million dollars, fourteen donors, and a president who thought nobody would ask. Someone asked. Now we wait for the answer.

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