Isabel Keane
Tue, February 10, 2026
THE INDEPENDENT
A federal judge will soon decide whether President Trump can rely on private donations to fund a $400 million White House ballroom project, with critics questioning the lack of transparency in the arrangement.
President Donald Trump’s plan to have private donors fund his new $400 million White House ballroom may cost him the entire project, as a federal judge will soon decide whether the administration is allowed to rely on fundraising to bypass congressional approval.
U.S. District Judge Ricard Leon says he may rule this month on a lawsuit filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in December to halt the ballroom’s construction, according to the Washington Post.
Trump has argued that using private donations to pay for the project keeps the burden off taxpayers, but critics say the plan highlights a lack of transparency about how the expansion is being funded.
Democrats and watchdog groups have raised questions about the arrangement, which relies on donations from big corporations and businesses. The donations are then routed through a nonprofit intermediary, which also profits, having received millions of dollars in fees, according to the Post.
The Trump administration has already found a lengthy list of donors, including Big Tech giants Amazon, Apple, Google, HP and Microsoft — as well as other well-known companies like Coinbase, Lockheed Martin, Palantir Technologies and T-Mobile.
A federal judge will soon decide whether President Donald Trump’s administration is allowed to rely on private donations to fund its new $400 million ballroom expansion, according to a report (Getty Images)More
Trump has previously said that using donations to fund the project keeps taxpayers from fronting the bill (AFP via Getty Images)
Most of the donors have declined to say how much they’ve given. However, the watchdog group CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) says at least 22 companies involved in the project failed to disclose their donations in lobbying filings.
During a hearing for the lawsuit brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation held in January, Leon shared his reservations about proceeding without congressional approval. He also questioned whether Trump possessed the statutory power to dismantle the East Wing and build a ballroom in its place without explicit oversight or authorization from Congress.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, is urging the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit managing the project’s donations, to clarify its role and share information about the donations it has received.
The organization declined to provide details to the Post about the gifts, but said it collects between 2 and 2.5 percent of each donation as part of a management fee. A spokesperson said the fee is standard practice.
The White House has declined to specify how much money has been raised for the project, which has doubled in cost from its initial estimate of $200 million last summer.
Soon after plans for the ballroom were announced, the East Wing was demolished without and public review process. (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
“President Trump is generously donating his time and resources to build a beautiful White House ballroom, a project which past presidents only dreamed about,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said. “Since announcing this historic plan, the White House has been inundated with calls from generous Americans and American companies wishing to contribute.”
In October, Trump hosted an opulent gala dinner for some of his sponsors in the East Room of the White House — which coincided with the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, lasting 43 days.
Soon after plans to replace the East Wing with a new ballroom were announced, demolition began without any extensive public review process. The ballroom is projected to be approximately 90,000 square feet, and the attached “New East Wing” complex will include a new office for the First Lady, a movie theater and commercial kitchen.
“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Joe Biden, and not anyone else,” the lawsuit filed in December says.
However, in December Leon declined to immediately pause construction of the project, and Trump’s Department of Justice is moving to ensure that doesn’t change.
Trump was sued in December by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is challenging the legality of the project (Getty Images)
A DOJ filing asked a federal judge overseeing the lawsuit to stay any injunction on the construction over alleged “national security” concerns, ABC News reported.
"[A]s the Secret Service attested, halting construction would imperil the President and others who live and work in the White House," the administration argues in the filing.
The Trump administration said it will also be submitting a second classified statement from the Secret Service to further support its argument that stopping construction at the site will "endanger national security and therefore impair the public interest."
The filing claims that leaving the project incomplete would be a risk to national security. The DOJ filing comes after Judge Leon first made it clear he was skeptical of Trump’s claim that he could use private donations to fund the ballroom’s construction.
White House press secretary contradicts Trump and says it was president’s idea to rename Penn Station after himself
Mike Bedigan
Tue, February 10, 2026
THE INDEPENDENT
White House press secretary contradicts Trump and says it was president’s idea to rename Penn Station after himself
Key takeaways
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt contradicted Donald Trump's claim that he did not ask to rename New York's Penn Station after himself.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to contradict claims by Donald Trump that he had not asked to rename New York’s Penn Station after himself.
“It was something the president floated in his conversation with Chuck Schumer,” Leavitt said Tuesday, in response to a question about why the president was interested in changing the name of the building. “Why not?”
Her remarks come following reports last week that Trump said he would unfreeze millions of dollars in federal funds for a $16 billion New York infrastructure project if Senator Schumer agreed to rename New York's Penn Station and Virginia's Dulles International Airport after him.
On Friday, Trump claimed that it had in fact been the Senate Minority Leader’s idea to rename the two buildings.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to contradict claims by Donald Trump that he had not asked to rename New York’s Penn Station after himself.
“It was something the president floated in his conversation with Chuck Schumer,” Leavitt said Tuesday, in response to a question about why the president was interested in changing the name of the building. “Why not?”
Her remarks come following reports last week that Trump said he would unfreeze millions of dollars in federal funds for a $16 billion New York infrastructure project if Senator Schumer agreed to rename New York's Penn Station and Virginia's Dulles International Airport after him.
On Friday, Trump claimed that it had in fact been the Senate Minority Leader’s idea to rename the two buildings.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to contradict claims by Donald Trump that he had not asked to rename New York’s Penn Station after himself (REUTERS)
“He suggested that to me,” the president told reporters on his way to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend. “Chuck Schumer suggested that to me, about changing the name of Penn Station to Trump Station. Dulles Airport is really separate.”
Shortly after the exchange was reported Schumer posted an angry rebuttal online.
"Absolute lie. He knows it. Everyone knows it," Schumer wrote. "Only one man can restart the project and he can restart it with the snap of his fingers."
As of Tuesday night, Schumer has not yet responded to Leavitt’s claims online. The Independent has contacted the New York senator’s office for comment.
Trump froze $200 million in federal funding for the project, the Gateway Tunnel Project in New York City, in October, even though the funds had already been approved by Congress.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reacted angrily to a suggestion by Donald Trump that he had suggested renaming the station after the president (Getty Images)
Work on the tunnel, which would join New York and New Jersey and ultimately replace other aging infrastructure linking the states, now cannot continue due to Trump's refusal to unfreeze the federal funding.
The Gateway Development Commission, which is overseeing the project, sued the federal government over the funding freeze last week. Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan ruled against the Trump administration and ordered it to release the funding on Friday, the same day as Trump made his comments about Schumer.
But soon after, the Department for Transport applied for a temporary restraining order against the ruling while it appealed, arguing that there would be no “obvious mechanism” for recovering the money if it was forced to do so. Work on the project had not been restarted as of Tuesday and a hearing is set for Wednesday to determine the next steps.
The Independent has contacted the White House and the Department of Transport for comment.
Construction on the Gateway Tunnel Project may have to pause this week as funding runs out (Getty Images)
The Trump administration never offered any specific reason for why it froze the funds and blamed Democrats for refusing to negotiate to get the project restarted.
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill hit out at the administration’s delays.
"I took the president to court on Friday, and I won. The court demanded release that money, and he has yet to do so," Sherrill said Monday, per CBS. "Here we are, all this equipment waiting to be put to work, all of you not on the job, because the president of the United States cares more about politics than he does about working men and women in this country."
Sherrill said that delays to the New Jersey Transit system were tied to her funding demands.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York also reacted angrily to the reported naming deal in a post on X.
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