Senate Parliamentarian Blocks Trump Ballroom Security Funding

A U.S. Senate official on Saturday removed security funding that could have been used for President Donald Trump’s proposed $400 million White House ballroom from a major spending package, Democratic lawmakers said, jeopardizing Republican efforts to direct taxpayer money to the controversial project.

The decision by Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough dealt a blow to Trump and his administration, which had sought the money for security purposes related to the ballroom.

Trump has stated that construction of the ballroom will be funded by private donors. However, Senate Republicans are seeking $1 billion in taxpayer funding for the Secret Service for security upgrades, including the ballroom, even though most of the legislation focuses on immigration enforcement.

Trump’s congressional allies are invoking complex budget rules to secure passage without any Democratic support. Democrats have opposed funding for Trump’s signature immigration crackdown without reforms they have demanded since federal immigration agents killed U.S. citizens in separate incidents in Minnesota in January.

Ryan Wrasse, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, wrote on X that “none of this is abnormal” during the complicated budget process that Republicans are using to try to pass the immigration enforcement and White House security money on a partisan basis.

“Redraft. Refine. Resubmit,” Wrasse said in the post.

Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, leaving them short of the 60 votes needed to pass most legislation under the chamber’s rules. Democrats have criticized the ballroom as an expensive and frivolous diversion by Trump at a time when Americans face rising costs such as higher fuel prices.

Republicans have said the ballroom-related spending is necessary to ensure presidential safety, citing an April incident in which a gunman tried to storm a black-tie media gala in Washington that Trump attended.

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy lost his primary on Saturday, as Louisiana voters opted instead to advance two challengers to a runoff election after an extraordinary intervention by Donald Trump to oust the incumbent.

With two days to go before the next big test of Donald Trump’s iron grip over his party, the president went head-to-head on Sunday with his nemesis, Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, who is in a fight for his political life in Tuesday’s Republican primary.

Workers renovating one of Washington D.C.’s most historically symbolic sites in a project ordered by Donald Trump may be risking their safety as they race to finish on time for the U.S.’s 250th anniversary celebrations, a union monitoring the site has warned.

FBI Director Kash Patel is facing new scrutiny following reports that he participated in a snorkeling excursion around the USS Arizona during a trip to Hawaii last summer.

The outing was first reported this week by the Associated Press, which obtained government emails describing the excursion as a “VIP snorkel” around the USS Arizona – the site that holds the remains of more than 1,000 U.S. Navy sailors and marines who died at Pearl Harbor in 1941.

The hantavirus outbreak, while unlikely to spark the next big pandemic, is highlighting the ways public health has deteriorated in the U.S.: its ability to test for rare diseases, its expertise on outbreak prevention and response, and its ability to battle misinformation and restore trust.

Thousands of people streamed onto the National Mall for a daylong prayer rally on Sunday billed as a “rededication of our country as One Nation Under God.” The White House-backed event has drawn broad criticism for blurring the lines between church and state, as prominent Republican officials appeared to speak alongside a slate of mostly evangelical speakers.

After a series of record-breaking U.S. heatwaves, the 2026 bee swarm season in North America has started 17 days earlier than last year, pushing beekeepers to adapt to a rapidly shifting season while raising new questions about how honeybees are responding to the climate crisis.

An investigation is under way after two U.S. jets collided and crashed during an airshow Sunday at Mountain Home Air Force Base in western Idaho, a spokesperson told Reuters.

Catching up? Here’s what happened on 16 May 2026.