WOW: Six GOP Senators Break With Trump, Vote to Block His Massive White House Ballroom
Six Republican senators crossed party lines Wednesday to support a Democratic amendment that would have stripped Trump of the ability to build a massive 90,000-square-foot ballroom onto the White House without explicit congressional authorization.
The amendment, introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, would have required Congress to formally approve the project and barred any federal money or private donations from going toward construction without that approval. It fell short of the 60-vote threshold needed to clear a procedural objection, failing 52 to 47.
The Republicans who broke ranks were Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Jon Husted of Ohio, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Collins, Husted, and Sullivan are each facing competitive reelection fights this fall, and recent polling shows all three trailing their Democratic challengers.
The ballroom had already been stripped from the Senate reconciliation bill after sparking a backlash from within the GOP caucus. The original package had included up to a billion dollars in funding tied to White House security upgrades and the new ballroom, a price tag that proved too much even for some of Trump’s own allies to stomach.
The vote is the latest sign that cracks are forming inside the Senate Republican conference as the midterms approach and vulnerable incumbents calculate just how much political risk they can absorb from Trump’s more extravagant demands.