Trump leads media tour of ballroom building site as Congress balks at $1bn price tag

President says $400m building costs to be funded by private donors, but has asked for taxpayers to cover security costs Shouting over the banging and clanging sounds from heavy construction equipment, Donald Trump on Tuesday gave a group of reporters a closer look at the construc

tion for the White House ballroom he’s building on the site of the former East Wing to mount a defense of the project that has hit a speed bump in Congress. The administration has asked for $1bn from taxpayers for security additions on the White House campus, including for the ballroom. But the Senate parliamentarian ruled the proposal could not be included in a bill to fund immigrant enforcement agencies for three years, and several Republican lawmakers have balked at the price tag in an election year where voters are grappling with gasoline, grocery and other prices spurred to new heights by the Iran war and the disruption in oil supplies. So Trump surprised White House reporters by bringing them to a platform overlooking the construction site on a hot and breezy morning as workers in hard hats and fluorescent yellow vests milled below. Easels had been set up to display renderings of t