1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I am writing to you as a constituent who is outraged — and frankly exhausted — by the shameless parade of vanity spending coming out of this administration while everyday Americans are drowning. Let's be clear about what is happening: Trump promised the American people, repeatedly and on the record, that his White House ballroom would be privately funded. "Not one penny from the federal government," he said. That promise lasted until Republicans quietly buried $1 BILLION in security costs for the same ballroom inside an ICE funding bill. A project that started at $200 million has now metastasized into a $1 billion taxpayer liability — for a gold-encrusted ballroom. Meanwhile, the administration is simultaneously pushing forward on a 250-foot "Triumphal Arch" near Arlington National Cemetery, bypassing Congress entirely and citing a century-old authorization that legal experts say covers no such thing. This is happening while Trump's reckless, ill-conceived war with Iran is driving up the cost of everything — fuel, food, goods — crushing working families who had nothing to do with that decision and no vote in it. The deficit is careening out of control. Americans are hurting. And this president's answer is to bulldoze the East Wing of the White House and erect monuments to himself. I am demanding that you: 1. STRIP the $1 billion ballroom security provision from any reconciliation or spending bill — immediately and completely. 2. ASSERT congressional authority over the Triumphal Arch project. The administration cannot unilaterally invoke a 100-year-old report to reshape the capital's skyline. 3. GO ON RECORD opposing these expenditures publicly. Your constituents are struggling. They deserve a representative willing to say out loud that this is obscene. Vanity monuments are not governance. They are the province of autocrats. Do your job and stop this.