Trump Ballroom Suddenly Faces GOP Opposition in Surprise Blow to MAGA

MAGA hoped the correspondents’ dinner assassination plot would give the ballroom a big political lift. But Americans still hate the idea. Democrats must capitalize on that.

After a gunman allegedly attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month, Senator John Fetterman seized on the moment to accuse his fellow Democrats of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Fetterman tweeted: “Drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom for events exactly like these.”

In saying this, Fetterman gestured at a certain theory of our moment: Not everything Trump does is rooted in megalomania and dictatorial abuses of power. Trump can be right sometimes. Trump-obsessed Democrats who won’t admit this squander a chance to appeal to the Reasonable Middle. Similarly, when Trump started pushing the project last fall, some centrist Democrats ridiculed calls for the next Democratic president to tear it down, calling it a “distraction.”

Well, if opposing Trump’s ballroom carries echoes of TDS, it turns out some Republicans are afflicted with TDS, too. Punchbowl News reports that some Senate and House Republicans are balking at the ballroom project, now that the White House has demanded that its security be funded with $1 billion in taxpayer money:

Some of these skeptical Republicans feel the ballroom is just too politically toxic right now, especially when Trump said for so long that it would be paid for by private funds. Trump’s approval ratings are in the 30s. Gas is $4.55 per gallon. Trump can’t yet find a path to victory against Iran.

Some of these skeptical Republicans feel the ballroom is just too politically toxic right now, especially when Trump said for so long that it would be paid for by private funds. Trump’s approval ratings are in the 30s. Gas is $4.55 per gallon. Trump can’t yet find a path to victory against Iran.

Republicans tell Punchbowl that the ballroom........

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