Senate Democrats say National Park Service being used for ‘influence peddling’ by accepting donations for Trump’s ballroom
Five Senate Democrats say a National Parks Service trust dedicated to preserving the White House grounds is now being used for “influence peddling,” by accepting donations to pay for Donald Trump’s “gold-plated $300m ballroom”.
The senators, Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Ron Wyden, Chris Van Hollen, and Ed Markey put their allegations in a letter to the National Park Service comptroller and the president of the Trust for the National Mall.
“We are concerned about the risk of quid-pro-quo arrangements in which large corporations get backroom favors from the White House and President Trump gets his multimillion-dollar ballroom – all while American families face rising prices during a government shutdown”, the lawmakers wrote. “The American public deserves answers about the circumstances surrounding the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, about President Trump’s attempts to build a gold-plated $300m ballroom, and about whether the Trust is being used to facilitate corruption in the forms of corporate special interests’ insider access to the White House.”
The Trust was established in 2007 as a nonpartisan, nonprofit partner of the National Park Service. “However,” the senators write, “the scale of funds raised for President Trump’s ballroom, President Trump’s personal involvement in fundraising for the project, and the number of corporate donors with business before the Trump Administration raise new questions about whether the Trust is facilitating corrupt access to and favor-seeking from President Trump and his Administration.”
Key events
Stephen Miller insists the East Wing of the White House ‘is not part of The White House’
In an appearance on Fox News on Friday, Stephen Miller defended the unannounced demolition of the entire East Wing of the White House this week by arguing that the extension built nearly 125 years ago was not really part of the White House.
“The East Wing, which importantly is not part of the White House, it is not part of the residence, it was a cheaply built add-on structure… is badly in need of refurbishment, repair and renovation,” Miller argued, as images of the total demolition played on-screen beside him, seeming to undermine the idea that what is taking place could be described as mere repair or renovation.
Miller appeared to make explicit the argument Donald Trump hinted at on Wednesday, when he said that the misleading images made it look like his construction of a new grand ballroom was “touching the White House. We don’t touch the White House.”
Miller was not challenged on the logic of his claim that the East Wing of the White House was not part of the White House, but he did have some trouble getting it straight in his own head. Trump, he said, deserved praise for “repairing, finally, an area of the White House that has been left in disrepair for decades.”
Among other things, the logic used by Trump and Miller to describe the East Wing as not part of the White House would seem to suggest that the West Wing, where both Trump and Miller have their offices, is also not part of the White House and could be demolished by them without any explanation or warning.
During Trump’s first administration, however, his administration described Christmas decorations in the East Wing, directed by the first lady, Melania Trump, as an integral part of “Christmas at the White House.”
In 2018, a central feature of the holiday decorations was the Gold Star Family tree, decorated by Gold Star families, in the East Wing. That same year, a much-mocked image of Melania Trump among rows of blood-red Christmas trees was taken in the East Colonnade, which connected the East Wing to the main residence, until it was demolished this week to make way for the ballroom.
Trump and his aides have reacted angrily this week to suggestions that the demolition of the East Wing was a surprise, despite the fact that TRump hismefl said, when plans were first released in July, that the ballroom “won’t interfere with the current building. It’ll be near it but not touching it.”
Still, they do have a point, in that the project description posted on the White House website in July did suggest, without mentioning any demolition, that the ballroom would be located where the East Wing stood from 1902 until this week.
This is how the site of the new ballroom was described, in a text that many reporters, officials and members of the public apparently read past:
The White House Ballroom will be substantially separated from the main building of the White House, but at the same time, it’s theme and architectural heritage will be almost identical. The site of the new ballroom will be where the small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits. The East Wing was constructed in 1902 and has been renovated and changed many times, with a second story added in 1942.
Two Democratic congressmen, Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia, announced on Friday, in a letter to Donald Trump, that they are opening an investigation into what they call his “blatantly illegal and unconstitutional effort to steal $230 million from the American people,” by demanding compensation through the Federal Tort Claims Act for the federal investigations into his conduct at the end of his first term, which were thwarted by the supreme court.
“The Founders feared presidents like you might one day be tempted to use their powers to steal U.S. taxpayer funds. That’s why they enshrined a very simple rule into the Constitution, which is called the Domestic Emoluments Clause. As President, you may not receive any payment from the federal government or any of the states, except for your salary, which is currently fixed by law at $400,000 per year,” the congressmen write.
They add:
Your plan to have your former criminal defense attorneys, including the Deputy Attorney General and the Associate Attorney General, sign off on your demand for an astronomical $230 million payout from the U.S. Treasury clearly violates this ban on additional payments under the Domestic Emoluments Clause. One of your bogus demands—formally an administrative claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA)—seeks $85 million in punitive damages from the federal government, damages which are expressly prohibited under the Act,2 and $15 million in compensatory damages for the cost of defending against the Special Counsel proceedings in court. Your other claim is not even public. If either of your claims had any merit, you could have taken them to court by now and litigated them publicly. You did not do that. Instead, you waited until you became President and installed your handpicked loyalists at DOJ, knowing that you could instruct them to co-sign your demand notes in secret behind closed doors, and then you could present the notes to the U.S. Treasury for cold hard cash courtesy of the American taxpayer. That isn’t justice, it is theft.
In an exchange on Friday with our colleague Shrai Popat, a budget expert says that the Pentagon cannot simply pay soldiers with private donations.
As we reported earlier, the defense department confirmed on Friday that it had received a donation of $130m from an unnamed “friend” of the president who wanted to it to towards paying soldiers during the government shutdown. That sum would be just 2% of what’s needed to cover even two weeks of payroll for the Pentagon’s employees.
However, Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute, suggests that the law seems to bar the Pentagon from paying troops with donations.
“The department is welcome to acknowledge this donor’s intent but that does not change the legal restrictions on Congress needing to appropriate funds to pay military salaries,” Boccia says. “Notice the careful couching the Pentagon notice includes which states that the money was received under ‘general gifts acceptance authority.’”
“The military may accept private donations only in two cases: to support institutions such as military schools, hospitals, libraries, museums, and cemeteries; and to provide aid to service members or civilian employees who are wounded or killed in the line of duty, along with their families,” she adds.
”Money is fungible but Congress still needs to authorize funds in order for US troops to get paid,” Boccia notes. “The only way to legally get around this restriction is if Congress decided to recategorize troop pay as mandatory or direct spending.”
Senate Democrats say National Park Service being used for ‘influence peddling’ by accepting donations for Trump’s ballroom
Five Senate Democrats say a National Parks Service trust dedicated to preserving the White House grounds is now being used for “influence peddling,” by accepting donations to pay for Donald Trump’s “gold-plated $300m ballroom”.
The senators, Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Ron Wyden, Chris Van Hollen, and Ed Markey put their allegations in a letter to the National Park Service comptroller and the president of the Trust for the National Mall.
“We are concerned about the risk of quid-pro-quo arrangements in which large corporations get backroom favors from the White House and President Trump gets his multimillion-dollar ballroom – all while American families face rising prices during a government shutdown”, the lawmakers wrote. “The American public deserves answers about the circumstances surrounding the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, about President Trump’s attempts to build a gold-plated $300m ballroom, and about whether the Trust is being used to facilitate corruption in the forms of corporate special interests’ insider access to the White House.”
The Trust was established in 2007 as a nonpartisan, nonprofit partner of the National Park Service. “However,” the senators write, “the scale of funds raised for President Trump’s ballroom, President Trump’s personal involvement in fundraising for the project, and the number of corporate donors with business before the Trump Administration raise new questions about whether the Trust is facilitating corrupt access to and favor-seeking from President Trump and his Administration.”
Justice department to send federal monitors to polling sites in California and New Jersey
The justice department announced on Friday that it intends to send federal observers from its civil rights division to “monitor polling sites” in five California counties and one New Jersey county during “the upcoming November 4, 2025, general election to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law”.
The deployment of federal observers to ensure compliance with the federal voting rights laws was a key enforcement provision of the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, but for decades the monitors were dispatched to counties where violations of the rights of Black voters and other racial minorities were observed or suspected.
Before a 2013 supreme court ruling, 153 counties and parishes in 11 states were certified by the attorney general for federal observers: Alabama (22 counties), Alaska (1) Arizona (4), Georgia (29), Louisiana (12), Mississippi (51), New York (3), North Carolina (1), South Carolina (11), South Dakota (1) and Texas (18).
By 2024, the number of states where federal observers were sent to monitor elections had widened to 27.
Thursday’s announcement that monitors will only be sent to six counties, none of which were under observation last year, is a marked departure.
The new counties where voting will be observed on election day this year are:
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Passaic county, New Jersey
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Los Angeles county, California
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Orange county, California
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Riverside county, California
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Kern county, California
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Fresno county, California
In both states, Republican leaders has requested the monitors.
Earlier this week, Republicans in Passaic, New Jersey, asked assistant US attorney general Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the civil rights division, to oversee the processing of mail-in ballots in the county.
Dhillon, a former vice chair of the California Republican party who ran unsuccessfully to be chair of the Republican National Committee in 2023, was asked to send monitors to the five counties the current chair of the California Republicans, Corrin Rankin. In a letter to Dhillon this week, Rankin wrote: “we have received reports of irregularities in these counties that we fear will undermine either the willingness of voters to participate in the election or their confidence in the announced results of the election.”
Dhillon was previously a legal adviser to Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign and told Fox News on 5 November that year, two days before Joe Biden’s victory was confirmed, that the campaign hoped the supreme court would halt the counting of votes in areas without Republican party monitors. “We’re waiting for the United States supreme court – of which the president has nominated three justices – to step in and do something,” Dhillon said. “And hopefully Amy Coney Barrett will come through.”
Voters in California will be considering a redistricting proposal supported by the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, which would counter new gerrymandered congressional maps drawn to favor Texas Republicans by temporarily redrawing California’s maps to tilt the field in favor of Democrats.
Pentagon confirms it received $130m check from anonymous donor to pay military salaries during government shutdown
One day after Donald Trump said an unnamed “friend” had just sent “a check for $130m” to be used to pay military salaries during the government shutdown, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed that the defense department “accepted an anonymous donation of $130m under its general gift acceptance authority”.
“The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits,” the Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said in a statement. “We are grateful for this donor’s assistance after Democrats opted to withhold pay from troops.”
Although Trump referred to the $130m gift as enough to cover “any shortfall” in funds available to pay military personnel during the government shutdown, the administration told Congress last week that it used $6.5bn in funds allocated for research to pay troops for the first half of October. That means the donation will cover just 2% of the money needed to pay troops for the second half of the month.
It remains unclear what, if any, ethics review was carried out before the donation was accepted.
Pentagon policy says officials “must consult with their appropriate Ethics Official before accepting such a gift valued in excess of $10,000 to determine whether the donor is involved in any claims, procurement actions, litigation, or other particular matters involving the Department that must be considered prior to gift acceptance”.
My colleague, Eric Berger, has been covering the effect of funding for the government’s food stamp program running out, as the shutdown enters its 24th day.
Federal dollars for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) are set to run on 1 November if the government doesn’t reopen, affecting the ability of 42 million people around the country to put food on the table.
As Eric reports, the Department of Agriculture recently sent a letter to regional Snap directors warning them that funding for Snap will run out at the end of the month and directing them to hold payments “until further notice”.
More than 200 Democratic representatives have urged the USDA to use contingency funds to continue paying for Snap benefits.
Read his full report below.
Here’s a recap of the day so far
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The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, said that he has spoken with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and decided to pause the advertising campaign that drew ire from Donald Trump effective Monday, so that trade talks can resume. “Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses,” Ford said in a post on X. The Ontario government paid for and produced the advert which uses archival footage of a speech by Ronald Reagan in 1987 denouncing tariffs. In response, Trump has halted all trade talks with Canada, while White House officials said today that the negotiating process so far had been “difficult”.
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Earlier, Donald Trump continued his criticism over the advertisement, accusing the country of trying to influence the US supreme court. “Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post. The court set a date of 5 November for arguments it will hear concerning the legality of Trump’s sweeping global tariffs.
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Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, has endorsed Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner in the New York mayoral race. Until now, the top Democrat, who represents a section of Brooklyn in Congress, had not officially backed Mamdani, much to the frustration of progressives within the party. Jeffries said in his statement that he and Mamdani will have “areas of principled disagreement” but emphasized that the party needed to unite in the face of an “existential” threat from Donald Trump.
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New York attorney general Letitia James has pleaded not guilty to two felony charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. She was arraigned at a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia. “This isn’t about me. It’s about all of us,” she said, adding that the justice system had been “used as a tool for revenge” in a statement after her appearance in court. “My faith is strong. I have belief in the justice system and the rule of law,” she added.
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The US is sending the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships to waters off Latin America and the Caribbean, the Pentagon said. Defense department spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said that the move supports the Trump administration’s goal of combating international drug-trafficking networks. The enhanced force will bolster US capacity to “detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere”. The added military presence is a major escalation in Donald Trump’s recent campaign of targeting alleged drug-carrying vessels in a series of strikes in recent weeks.
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On that note, US has carried out its 10th strike on an alleged drug-carrying vessel, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Friday. The Pentagon chief added that six people were killed in the attack, asserting that they were all members of the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua.
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Prices continued to rise in September, increasing at an annual rate of 3%, according to the latest government inflation report. In September alone, prices rose by 0.3%, a slight slowdown after rising 0.4% in August. The data had been delayed by the ongoing US government shutdown. Meanwhile, the White House said today that the ongoing government shutdown, will “likely result in no October inflation report” – continuing to blame Democratic lawmakers for the lapse in funding.
Robert Mackey
A federal judge in Portland, Oregon, on Friday rejected the Trump administration’s request to immediately lift her order blocking the deployment of federalized national guard troops to the city, saying that she would decide the matter by Monday.
The district court judge, Karin Immergut, who is based in the city, had previously issued two temporary restraining orders blocking the deployment of national guard troops there, in response to a persistent but small protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office.
Her first order, blocking the deployment of 200 troops from the Oregon national guard, said that Donald Trump has exceeded his authority by taking federal control of the troops based on his claim that the city was in a state of war-like rebellion. Trump’s assessment, Immergut ruled, was “simply untethered to the facts”.
When Trump responded to that order by sending 200 troops from California’s national guard to Oregon, and threatened to send 400 more from Texas, Immergut determined it was an attempt to evade her order, and issued a second order barring the deployment of troops from anywhere in the country to Portland.
Immergut’s first order was lifted on Monday by a three-judge panel of the ninth circuit court of appeals, over the strong dissent of the only judge on the panel who lives in Portland. But because the government never appealed Immergut’s second order, it remains in effect and the deployment of troops remains blocked until she decides whether or not to lift or modify it in response to the appeals court ruling.
At a virtual hearing on Friday, Immergut cited two reasons for her to delay lifting the second injunction. The first was that the appeals court did not address a central fact in her second order: that she had issued it in part because the government responded to her first order by attempting to evade it. The second was that the ninth circuit appeals court is currently considering a call from one of its judges to rehear the appeal of Immergut’s first order before a larger panel of 11 judges.
At the end of the hearing, Immergut said that she would decide by Monday, if not earlier.
US deploys aircraft carrier to waters off Latin America, amid escalating anti-drug trafficking efforts
The US is sending the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships to Caribbean waters off Latin America, the Pentagon said.
The defense department spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said that the move supports the Trump administration’s goal of combating international drug-trafficking networks. The enhanced force will bolster US capacity to “detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Parnell said in a statement. He did not say exactly when the Ford carrier would be stationed in the region.
The added military presence is a major escalation in Donald Trump’s recent campaign of targeting alleged drug-carrying vessels in a series of strikes in recent weeks. The most recent of which killed six suspected members of the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua.
Ontario premier issues pause of advert criticizing Trump tariffs
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, said that he has spoken with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and has decided to pause the advertising campaign that drew ire from Donald Trump effective Monday, so that trade talks can resume.
“Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses,” Ford said in a post on X.
The Ontario government paid for and produced the advert which uses archival footage of a speech by Ronald Reagan in 1987 denouncing tariffs. In response, Trump has halted all trade talks with Canada, while White House officials said today that the negotiating process so far had been “difficult”.
Ford said that before the anti-tariff ad is taken off the air, he has directed his team “to keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend” by playing the commercial during the first two World Series games.
‘Pure electoral poison’: GOP groups slam Jeffries endorsement of Mamdani
Since Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat, endorsed Zohran Mamdani in a statement to the New York Times, both state and national Republican organizations have slammed the move, often with misleading and untrue claims.
“In an act of supreme cowardice and capitulation, Democrats’ Minority Leader in Congress just threw his lot in with an openly Communist, anti-Semitic, defund-the-police, globalize-the-intifada extremist,” said NYGOP chair Ed Cox in a statement.
Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), said that Jeffries had “officially surrendered to Zohran Mamdani and the socialist mob now running the Democrat Party”.
“Their far-left takeover has torched Democrats’ hopes of retaking the House and turned their agenda into pure electoral poison. Every single Democrat is a willing accomplice to their own party’s collapse,” said Mike Marinella, a spokesperson for the NRRC.
Top House Democrat offers long-awaited endorsement of Mamdani
Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, has endorsed Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner in the New York mayoral race, in a statement.
Until now, the top Democrat, who represents a section of Brooklyn in Congress, had not officially backed Mamdani, much to the frustration of progressives within the party. Early voting in New York begins on Saturday 25 October.
Jeffries said in his statement that he and Mamdani will have “areas of principled disagreement” but the state assemblyman won “a free and fair election” in the Democratic primary. Jeffries emphasized that the party needed to unite in the face of an “existential” threat from Donald Trump.
“I support our nominee’s strong commitment to building a City where everyday New Yorkers can afford to live. By necessity, this must involve a meaningful partnership with the private sector to dramatically increase the supply of affordable homes,” Jeffries wrote.
For his part, Mamdani welcomed Jeffries’ endorsement, and said he looks forward “to delivering a city government, and building a Democratic Party, relentlessly committed to our affordability agenda – and to fighting Trump’s authoritarianism”.
