Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Trump's WH upgrades surpass $900M. Ex-aide calls it 'appalling'

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Trump's WH upgrades surpass $900M. Ex-aide calls it 'appalling' · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: To reporting on the ballooning price tag for President Trump's
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  Speaker 1: construction projects of the White House, The Washington Post reports
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  Speaker 1: the Trump administration is said to spend at least nine
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  Speaker 1: hundred million dollars, a majority of that for the new
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  Speaker 1: ballroom complex, but also includes the new helipad and a
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  Speaker 1: new visitor screening center. That number is primarily taxpayer dollars,
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  Speaker 1: which the president, of course once said would not be
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  Speaker 1: spent on the ballroom. Complicating the money trail, the Post
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  Speaker 1: find the administration is moving some funds through an obscure
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  Speaker 1: office called the Executive Residence, which is normally used for
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  Speaker 1: housekeeping and repairs on the residential side of the White House.
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  Speaker 1: The Washington Posts investigative reporter Jonathan O'Connell's on the byline
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  Speaker 1: joins me, now, Jonathan, so just walk us through your
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  Speaker 1: reporting on this. How much of this nine hundred and
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven million, according to the reporting by you, is
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  Speaker 1: going to projects that could be considered necessary and might
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  Speaker 1: have been undertaken no matter who was in the White House,
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  Speaker 1: compared to how much is going to President Trump's personal
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  Speaker 1: priorities like the ballroom, the new helipad, the Rose Garden revamp,
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  Speaker 1: the list goes on.
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  Speaker 2: Oh sure, I think the White House visitor Center has
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  Speaker 2: been envisioned for a number of years. Previous administries have
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  Speaker 2: talked about it, and there's been some planning around it.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: The centurpiece of this, of course, of the East Wing,
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  Speaker 2: where President Trump would like to have a new ballroom.
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  Speaker 2: There have been discussions previously about whether the East Wing
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  Speaker 2: needs upgrades or could have a larger ballroom. The issue
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  Speaker 2: here really is that he just knocked it down without
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  Speaker 2: a plan that Congress had seen and without any funding
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  Speaker 2: that Congress had at least intentionally provided for it. So
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  Speaker 2: now he's somewhat locked up in court over whether he
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  Speaker 2: can continue going because he did this sort of work
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  Speaker 2: around with Congress.
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  Speaker 1: And how much of this is it known? Is taxpayer
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  Speaker 1: money and are there any restraints on how it's actually used.
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  Speaker 2: So this nine hundred and twenty seven million dollars Anderson
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  Speaker 2: is the best tally we have of that we can see.
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  Speaker 2: Around three hundred and five million uppears to be donations,
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  Speaker 2: private donations, and the President has said repeatedly that the
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  Speaker 2: ballroom portion of the East Wing will be paid for
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  Speaker 2: by private donations. Sometimes he's left out the reality that
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  Speaker 2: the rest of the East wing is going to be
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  Speaker 2: paid for by the public. And we can see again
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  Speaker 2: like these large transfers of money by the Budget Office
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  Speaker 2: that are coming from the Secret Service, from the White
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  Speaker 2: House Military Office, that are you know, they've been appropriated
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  Speaker 2: money by Congress. Is a little unclear with the source
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  Speaker 2: of some of them are.
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  Speaker 3: But beyond that, is.
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  Speaker 1: There any historical precedent for renovations in and around the
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  Speaker 1: White House at this scope in this expense.
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  Speaker 2: Man Anderson, you got to go back a pretty long way.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, in two thousand and eight, two thousand and
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  Speaker 2: nine under George D. Bush and President Obama, we had
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  Speaker 2: some upgrades to really like infrastructure of the buildings. It
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  Speaker 2: is a very old building, you know, like the lighting, HVAC, electrical,
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  Speaker 2: that sort of thing. Other than that, you got to
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  Speaker 2: go back to President Truman because at that time a
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  Speaker 2: significant portion of the White House is really almost falling apart,
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  Speaker 2: and there was an expensive at the time renovation. But
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  Speaker 2: even that, like previous presidents, when they want to make
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  Speaker 2: our previous administrations, when they want to make upgrades to
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  Speaker 2: the White House, the People's House, they make a proposal,
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  Speaker 2: they send their people to Congress to ask for money,
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  Speaker 2: and the Congress debates whether they're provided it or not
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  Speaker 2: and how quickly provide it, and then they use that
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  Speaker 2: money and go out and contract for companies to build it,
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  Speaker 2: and they just have skipped so many of those steps.
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  Speaker 1: Here has the White House respondent you're reporting, Yes.
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  Speaker 2: The again, they're standing firm on the idea that the ballroom,
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  Speaker 2: specifically within the East Wing, will be paid for by
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  Speaker 2: private donations. And they say that their transfers of these money,
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  Speaker 2: this money that has been appropriate by Congress will be
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  Speaker 2: spent and is being spent according to Congress's original intent,
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  Speaker 2: without necessarily saying where the money is from and how
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  Speaker 2: much they're planning to spend at all.
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  Speaker 1: Jonathan O'Connell is always great reporting. Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 3: Sarah. Start with you obviously spend time at the White
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  Speaker 3: House in this administration previously. What do you think about this?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, this cannot be good for Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 4: Let me just say that it seems like Trump missed
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  Speaker 4: his true calling, which was to be first lady or
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  Speaker 4: first gentleman, so he could actually take the time to
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  Speaker 4: focus on these types of pet projects of decorating the
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  Speaker 4: White House, but instead he's president of the United States.
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  Speaker 4: These should not be his priorities. But spending almost a
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  Speaker 4: billion dollars on this is not what voters signed up for,
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  Speaker 4: especially when we're facing an affordability crisis. Voters don't want
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  Speaker 4: to see him like playing with these pet projects and
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  Speaker 4: designs of the new ballroom and all these things. And
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  Speaker 4: the main issue here is too that he's focusing on
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  Speaker 4: this instead of other issues facing our country. He's also
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  Speaker 4: stealing taxpayer money to pay for it and funneling it
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  Speaker 4: from other funds, and one of those being the Secret Service.
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  Speaker 4: He's taking over four hundred million dollars in funding that
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  Speaker 4: was appropriated by Congress for Secret Service to hire and
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  Speaker 4: train new agents. So it's just appalling to me that
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  Speaker 4: this is what he's doing. He should be going through
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  Speaker 4: the process of getting Congress to appropriate these funds these renovations.
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  Speaker 4: He tried and he failed, and now he has to
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  Speaker 4: steal it from other funds for the TAXPA.
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  Speaker 5: No, I think that the I think we've seen the
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  Speaker 5: result of it. I mean, many times the Trump administration
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  Speaker 5: is giving out no big contracts to donors and friends
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  Speaker 5: of the family, et cetera. We saw how that worked
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  Speaker 5: with the reflecting Pool and that what is called a
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  Speaker 5: big reflecting pool. I mean, you give out contracts to
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  Speaker 5: people who are ill equipped to do the work necessary.
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  Speaker 3: You know, just the reflecting pool. It's the balls, it's
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  Speaker 3: the ballroom. It's also the helipad, it's the Rose golf clubs,
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  Speaker 3: the golf I mean, there's there's a huge number of
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  Speaker 3: projects here.
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  Speaker 5: I don't know what happens to conservatism. I mean I
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  Speaker 5: remember when Republicans.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know what happens to separation of powers.
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  Speaker 5: At some point, Congress is going to have to reassert
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  Speaker 5: its role in our democracy, but it's not going to
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  Speaker 5: happen in under the current circumstances.
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  Speaker 3: And I also have an issue with his taste. You know,
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  Speaker 3: I live in DC and all.
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  Speaker 6: That yellow gold stuff is gaudy, and now you live
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  Speaker 6: in Virginia's good point.
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  Speaker 5: I don't mean I corrected, but you know, all that
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  Speaker 5: yellow gold everywhere, it's it's tacky.
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  Speaker 4: And and he's also out of touch because it's a
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  Speaker 4: slap in the face to voters who are dealing with affordability.
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  Speaker 3: Just briefly, Scott, who should replace Caroline Lovett? Obviously she
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  Speaker 3: is stepping down, and are you throwing how do you think,
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  Speaker 3: who do you? Yeah, well, first of all, you're throwing
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  Speaker 3: your hat in the ring, and will you.
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  Speaker 4: Serve Scott answer the question?
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  Speaker 5: Now, look, answer the question.
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  Speaker 6: I don't know, but I'll tell you this. Caroline Lovett
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  Speaker 6: has been maybe the greatest White House Press secretary in
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  Speaker 6: the last thirty years at least, she's been nothing short
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  Speaker 6: of brilliant. She's done it while raising a young family.
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  Speaker 6: I think it's great that she's going to go spend
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  Speaker 6: time with her family. But I don't know a single
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  Speaker 6: Republican in the country who isn't in all of and
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  Speaker 6: an appreciation of Caroline tonight. So godspeed on your journey
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  Speaker 6: back to your family. You've done great.
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  Speaker 3: Do you want the job or not?
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  Speaker 5: Let me help Scott. Democrats are afraid of Scott Jennings
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  Speaker 5: becoming press.
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  Speaker 7: You've got the job.
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  Speaker 4: Of my you know.
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  Speaker 6: Obama renovated the complex three hundred and seventy six million,
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  Speaker 6: which is about five seventy and.
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  Speaker 3: Didn't use as much. Goal didn't use this much.
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  Speaker 6: I'm just saying it's not unprecedented for presidents to spend
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  Speaker 6: a few hundred million renovating the White House Complex.
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  Speaker 4: Every One knocked down the East Wing without telling anyone.
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  Speaker 6: Well, it'll be better when it's done.
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  Speaker 2: Josh.
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  Speaker 7: The Washing Post as a really smart story, speaking of
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  Speaker 7: Secret Service needed to keep the presidents safe. They're reporting
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  Speaker 7: that the Trump administration is playing these millions from Secret
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  Speaker 7: Service funding to pay for the construction of White House projects,
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  Speaker 7: projects like the ballroom, the helicopter pad, so on and
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  Speaker 7: so forth. Washing Post is the administration planning to spend
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  Speaker 7: at least nine hundred million dollars, five hundred million of
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  Speaker 7: it coming from the Secret Service and White House Military Office.
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  Speaker 7: I know that's not how Congress appropriated it. OWENB can
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  Speaker 7: do a lot of things. It turns out there's a
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  Speaker 7: lot of gray area there and they've figured all that out.
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  Speaker 8: What's your read on, Well, first off, the reason OWENB
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  Speaker 8: can figure that out is because Congress is unwilling to
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  Speaker 8: exert its own authority. That's the key. And the founders
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  Speaker 8: of the constitution of this country always assume there'd be
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  Speaker 8: somebody like Donald Trump that would come along. They never
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  Speaker 8: assumed that Congress would so willingly give up its power.
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  Speaker 8: What they're planning to do, I'm guessing, is to use
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  Speaker 8: this budget and then come to Congress later and say
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  Speaker 8: that they have to worry about security of the president
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  Speaker 8: and everybody else and they need more money to cover that,
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  Speaker 8: and Congress will be like, well, sure, we want to
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  Speaker 8: keep the president safe.
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  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 8: Also keep in mind they have pulled Secret Service protection
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  Speaker 8: and other protection from former administration officials. They did this
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  Speaker 8: all within like the first month. You think of John
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  Speaker 8: Bolton and others, a Mike Pompeo, they pulled protection from them.
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  Speaker 8: Even again, even members of their own administration. They play
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  Speaker 8: games with this, and I think Congress needs to stand
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  Speaker 8: up and say no, you can't do it. And if
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  Speaker 8: Congress does that, they can stop it from happening.
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  Speaker 3: That won't happen.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah, it figure scross though. I saw what you're doing there.
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  Speaker 7: It's a super important point. Don't blame ob don't blame us, vote,
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  Speaker 7: don't blame the administration. They're doing what they can because
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  Speaker 7: Congress is abdicating their responsibility.