1. United States
2. S.C.
3. Letter

More than half of the 27 publicly-identified donors to President Donald Trump's $400 million White House ballroom have been awarded new or expanded federal contracts since construction work began, according to watchdog reports. Fourteen of the donors to Trump's pet project saw their government business grow in the first six months after he ordered the demolition of the East Wing, with the contract awards worth a combined $50 billion, new analysis from Public Citizen reveals. The largest individual recipient of new business over the course of the time period concerned was the defense giant Lockheed Martin, which has received approximately $43.8 billion in new or enhanced government business since the autumn. Other contributors to the ballroom who have also reportedly received new or improved deals for their services during the timeframe include Booz Allen Hamilton, Palantir, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Caterpillar and T-Mobile. President Donald Trump is determined to realize his White House ballroom project but watchdogs like Public Citizen continue to raise conflict of interest concerns. The organization notes that 16 of the companies on the published donor list have previously been accused of wrongdoing by federal agencies and faced enforcement actions, which, in some cases, have been suspended by Trump's administration since he returned to office in January 2025. "These giant corporations aren't funding the Trump ballroom fiasco out of the goodness of their hearts," said Jon Golinger, Public Citizen's public policy advocate. "They have massive interests before the federal government, and they hope to curry favor with, and receive favorable treatment from, the Trump administration." Trump's corruption out in the open. He continues to accuse his political "enemies" of corruption when he is openly committing insider trading, giving himself "settlements" with agencies under his perview, trading pardons for cash investments and favor, and offering pay for play. When is Congress going to have the balls to do something about this?! This is our money and our government he is mismanaging, and we are paying the price for his corruption and incompetence!