Stop Allowing Funds for Trump Vanity Projects

Stop Allowing Funds for Trump Vanity Projects I’m writing as your constituent, frustrated by a pattern of taxpayer dollars funding the President’s personal vanity projects while Americans struggle to afford gas, groceries, and health care. While the President often claims private or personal funding, each time, public records later showed otherwise: Ballroom and bunker: Promised as “not one dime” of taxpayer money. Internal budget estimates later projected that hundreds of millions of dollars would come from Secret Service and White House Military Office funds. Triumphal Arch: Promised as donor-funded. The National Endowment for the Humanities instead reserved $15 million in federal funds for it. Reflecting Pool: Estimated at $1.5–6 million. The cost for the work, which was done under a no-bid crony contract, has grown to nearly $16 million (before costs for extensive repairs that became necessary almost immediately upon completion of the work), funded at least in part through National Park Service entrance-fee accounts otherwise intended for park maintenance and visitor improvements. Colonnade walkway and stucco: Over $1 million in expedited National Park Service spending on colonnade and stucco modifications associated with displaying presidential portraits (including insulting references to prior presidents, some of which are reported to have been written by Trump himself, while references to Trump are self-aggrandizing).  Meanwhile, internal records showed more than 900 other Park Service projects did not receive expected funding, including a safety-related guardrail project at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Oval Office gold décor: Cost and funding source have never been disclosed. The White House claims the President paid personally but has provided no documentation. Army 250th anniversary parade: $30–45 million from the Army’s budget for a parade scheduled on the President’s own birthday. UFC cage fight / 80th birthday event: Promised as fully funded by the UFC. Federal agencies devoted weeks of staff and resources, and D.C. will absorb $10–12 million in security costs from a federally appropriated fund, with the city’s own spokesperson saying no UFC reimbursement is expected. Personal image on federal money, documents, and buildings: The same presidential portrait appears on a planned commemorative passport, a proposed (not yet authorized) $250 bill, and banners on four federal buildings. A Senate report found the banners cost at least $50,000 in taxpayer funds, may have violated federal propaganda laws, and noted that the banners resembled imagery used by authoritarian regimes. This is not fiscal discipline. It’s taxpayer money funding one man’s monuments to himself while families ration health care and skip meals. I’m asking you to take two concrete actions: 1.     Request a formal GAO legal opinion and audit on whether these agencies’ use of appropriated and fee-based funds — including National Park Service entrance fees, NEH program funds, Secret Service and White House Military Office accounts, and the federal event security fund — complies with 31 U.S.C. § 1301(a), other applicable appropriations laws, and restrictions on unauthorized augmentation of agency programs and activities. 2.     Support an appropriations rider requiring advance, itemized notification to Congress and prohibiting the obligation of funds for such projects until the required disclosure has been provided. The American people deserve to know their money is going to support the American people—not an individual’s ego—before it’s spent, not after.