Why Is Trump Giving America a $200 Million Ballroom? by J.E. Dean

I remember watching one of Karoline Leavitt’s news briefing where she stated that Donald Trump, one of the most successful businessmen of all time, loves America so much that he stepped away from the businesses that made him billions to serve as America’s President. 

Leavitt went on to describe the $200 million ballroom the President was donating to the American people which Leavitt claimed that Trump is paying for it out of his own pocket. 

If one calculated the gifts made by every U.S. President other than Trump, none of them compare. Abraham Lincoln may have saved the union and ended slavery, but I ask you did he put up giant American flags on either side of White House at his own expense or think of building a ballroom?

As an American citizen I don’t want the “gifts” Trump keeps on giving. I didn’t want a Mar-a-Lago-esque ballroom any more than I would want Trump’s face chiseled into Mount Rushmore–even if Trump volunteered to pay for it. I also don’t want the Qatari 747 curiously donated to the United States to serve as a new Air Force One after over $100 million in government-paid-for upgrades, and subject to transfer to the Trump Presidential Library once Trump leaves office. 

 Gifts are not always a good thing. We all know this whenever we are given something that may have ulterior motives. 

Over the years, I never read anything that suggested Trump is a generous man. I read about his rebuilding of the Wollman Skating Rink in New York, but that was done to pressure officials to grant building permits for developments that otherwise might not have been approved. 

I also understand that Trump University sometimes gave out scholarships . . . Let’s not go there. Trump University was proven to be a fraud.

So, has Donald Trump suddenly become one of the world’s greatest philanthropists? Of course not. The author of The Art of the Deal doesn’t do anything without the expectation of getting something bigger—usually something much bigger—in return.

Here’s a theory. Trump is making billions while serving as President. Many of those billions are through involvement in cryptocurrency. Trump Media and Technology, the company that gave us the ironically named “Truth Social,” has a “treasury” of more than two billion in Bitcoin. 

Thanks to Trump’s regulatory policy, Bitcoin is booming. It is Springtime for Bitcoin. Trump has created an ideal regulatory environment for Bitcoin investors, including himself and his family. 

When critics—never Trumpers like myself—suggest Trump is enriching himself through official acts as president, Trump’s press secretary and others can point to the ballroom and ask, “Can you name another President who has given so much to America?”

And I suspect that Trump thinks he is owed something—a cut—from all the “governmental efficiencies” that DOGE implemented. Think of the money saved by effectively ending USAID and rescinding funding for public broadcasting. Isn’t it only fair that Trump spends some of the “savings” on himself?

Trump is not only making a lot of money as President for himself, he is spending a lot of Americans’ money on himself. Nearly every weekend Trump flies to Mar-a-Lago or to Bedminster, New Jersey to play golf. These trips have cost taxpayers more than $30 million. (Trump’s trip to Scotland alone to open another golf course is estimated to have cost American taxpayers more than $10 million.) Another example was the Washington, D.C. military parade held ostensibly to honor the U.S. Army but coincidentally held on Trump’s birthday with estimated costs of more than $25 million.

How can you fault President Trump for playing a little golf when he has given America so much out of his own pocket?

And let me also share one other perspective, one offered as a response to another piece I wrote criticizing Trump wanting to hold a G20 summit meeting at one of his golf clubs. (Trump proposed holding such a summit at his Doral golf facility during his first term as President, but the idea was shot down. He just made the same proposal for the G7 meeting to be held next year.)  The perspective offered was that even if it is unethical for Trump to hold government meetings at his facilities to generate revenue for them, the practice is legal because Trump “can do anything he wants.” 

Trump has made government ethics—at least those applicable to the White House—a joke. But he will never be prosecuted for it. The Supreme Court has ruled that anything Trump does as President is exempt from prosecution. 

If Trump chose to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York, he is immune from prosecution provided he could argue that the act was done in his official capacity. 

America is in trouble. If everything that appears to be going on, is going on, a gangster resides in the White House. 

J.E. Dean writes on politics, government but, too frequently, on President Trump. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean also writes for Dean’s Issues & Insights on Substack.