Senate Democrats say Nationwide Park Service getting used for ‘affect peddling’ by accepting donations for Trump’s ballroom
5 Senate Democrats say a Nationwide Parks Service belief devoted to preserving the White Home grounds is now getting used for “affect 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 Nationwide Park Service comptroller and the president of the Belief for the Nationwide Mall.
“We’re involved concerning the danger of quid-pro-quo preparations during which massive companies get backroom favors from the White Home and President Trump will get his multimillion-dollar ballroom – all whereas American households face rising costs throughout a authorities shutdown”, the lawmakers wrote. “The American public deserves solutions concerning the circumstances surrounding the demolition of the East Wing of the White Home, about President Trump’s makes an attempt to construct a gold-plated $300m ballroom, and about whether or not the Belief is getting used to facilitate corruption within the types of company particular pursuits’ insider entry to the White Home.”
The Belief was established in 2007 as a nonpartisan, nonprofit accomplice of the Nationwide Park Service. “Nevertheless,” the senators write, “the dimensions of funds raised for President Trump’s ballroom, President Trump’s private involvement in fundraising for the venture, and the variety of company donors with enterprise earlier than the Trump Administration increase new questions on whether or not the Belief is facilitating corrupt entry to and favor-seeking from President Trump and his Administration.”
Key occasions
Stephen Miller insists the East Wing of the White Home ‘will not be a part of The White Home’
In an appearance on Fox News on Friday, Stephen Miller defended the unannounced demolition of your complete East Wing of the White Home this week by arguing that the extension constructed practically 125 years in the past was probably not a part of the White Home.
“The East Wing, which importantly will not be a part of the White Home, it’s not a part of the residence, it was a cheaply constructed add-on construction… is badly in want of refurbishment, restore and renovation,” Miller argued, as pictures of the overall demolition performed on-screen beside him, seeming to undermine the concept that what’s going down may very well be described as mere restore or renovation.
Miller appeared to make specific the argument Donald Trump hinted at on Wednesday, when he stated that the deceptive pictures made it seem like his development of a brand new grand ballroom was “touching the White Home. We don’t contact the White Home.”
Miller was not challenged on the logic of his declare that the East Wing of the White Home was not a part of the White Home, however he did have some bother getting it straight in his personal head. Trump, he stated, deserved reward for “repairing, lastly, an space of the White Home that has been left in disrepair for many years.”
Amongst different issues, the logic utilized by Trump and Miller to explain the East Wing as not a part of the White Home would appear to recommend that the West Wing, the place each Trump and Miller have their places of work, can also be not a part of the White Home and may very well be demolished by them with none clarification or warning.
Throughout Trump’s first administration, nevertheless, his administration described Christmas decorations within the East Wing, directed by the primary woman, Melania Trump, as an integral a part of “Christmas at the White House.”
In 2018, a central characteristic of the vacation decorations was the Gold Star Household tree, embellished by Gold Star households, within the East Wing. That very same yr, a much-mocked picture of Melania Trump amongst rows of blood-red Christmas timber was taken within the East Colonnade, which related the East Wing to the primary residence, till it was demolished this week to make method for the ballroom.
Trump and his aides have reacted angrily this week to recommendations that the demolition of the East Wing was a shock, even if TRump hismefl stated, when plans had been first launched in July, that the ballroom “received’t intrude with the present constructing. It’ll be close to it however not touching it.”
Nonetheless, they do have some extent, in that the venture description posted on the White House website in July did recommend, with out mentioning any demolition, that the ballroom can be situated the place the East Wing stood from 1902 till this week.
That is how the location of the brand new ballroom was described, in a textual content that many reporters, officers and members of the general public apparently learn previous:
The White Home Ballroom can be considerably separated from the primary constructing of the White Home, however on the identical time, it’s theme and architectural heritage can be nearly similar. The positioning of the brand new ballroom can be the place the small, closely modified, and reconstructed East Wing at the moment sits. The East Wing was constructed in 1902 and has been renovated and adjusted many instances, with a second story added in 1942.
Two Democratic congressmen, Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia, introduced on Friday, in a letter to Donald Trump, that they’re opening an investigation into what they name his “blatantly unlawful and unconstitutional effort to steal $230 million from the American individuals,” by demanding compensation by the Federal Tort Claims Act for the federal investigations into his conduct on the finish of his first time period, which had been thwarted by the supreme courtroom.
“The Founders feared presidents such as you may at some point be tempted to make use of their powers to steal U.S. taxpayer funds. That’s why they enshrined a quite simple rule into the Structure, which is known as the Home Emoluments Clause. As President, chances are you’ll not obtain any cost from the federal authorities or any of the states, besides on your wage, which is at the moment mounted by regulation at $400,000 per yr,” the congressmen write.
They add:
Your plan to have your former prison protection attorneys, together with the Deputy Legal professional Normal and the Affiliate Legal professional Normal, log off in your demand for an astronomical $230 million payout from the U.S. Treasury clearly violates this ban on further funds below the Home Emoluments Clause. Certainly one of your bogus calls for—formally an administrative declare below the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA)—seeks $85 million in punitive damages from the federal authorities, damages that are expressly prohibited below the Act,2 and $15 million in compensatory damages for the price of defending in opposition to the Particular Counsel proceedings in courtroom. Your different declare will not be even public. If both of your claims had any advantage, you can have taken them to courtroom by now and litigated them publicly. You didn’t try this. As a substitute, you waited till you turned President and put in your handpicked loyalists at DOJ, figuring out that you can instruct them to co-sign your demand notes in secret behind closed doorways, after which you can current the notes to the U.S. Treasury for chilly exhausting money courtesy of the American taxpayer. That isn’t justice, it’s theft.
In an trade on Friday with our colleague Shrai Popat, a price range knowledgeable says that the Pentagon can’t merely pay troopers with non-public donations.
As we reported earlier, the protection division confirmed on Friday that it had obtained a donation of $130m from an unnamed “pal” of the president who needed to it to in direction of paying troopers throughout the federal government shutdown. That sum can be simply 2% of what’s wanted to cowl even two weeks of payroll for the Pentagon’s workers.
Nevertheless, Romina Boccia, director of price range and entitlement coverage on the Cato Institute, means that the regulation appears to bar the Pentagon from paying troops with donations.
“The division is welcome to acknowledge this donor’s intent however that doesn’t change the authorized restrictions on Congress needing to applicable funds to pay army salaries,” Boccia says. “Discover the cautious couching the Pentagon discover contains which states that the cash was obtained below ‘normal presents acceptance authority.’”
“The army might settle for non-public donations only in two cases: to assist establishments corresponding to army colleges, hospitals, libraries, museums, and cemeteries; and to supply help to service members or civilian workers who’re wounded or killed within the line of responsibility, together with their households,” she provides.
”Cash is fungible however Congress nonetheless must authorize funds to ensure that US troops to receives a commission,” Boccia notes. “The one technique to legally get round this restriction is that if Congress determined to recategorize troop pay as obligatory or direct spending.”
Senate Democrats say Nationwide Park Service getting used for ‘affect peddling’ by accepting donations for Trump’s ballroom
5 Senate Democrats say a Nationwide Parks Service belief devoted to preserving the White Home grounds is now getting used for “affect 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 Nationwide Park Service comptroller and the president of the Belief for the Nationwide Mall.
“We’re involved concerning the danger of quid-pro-quo preparations during which massive companies get backroom favors from the White Home and President Trump will get his multimillion-dollar ballroom – all whereas American households face rising costs throughout a authorities shutdown”, the lawmakers wrote. “The American public deserves solutions concerning the circumstances surrounding the demolition of the East Wing of the White Home, about President Trump’s makes an attempt to construct a gold-plated $300m ballroom, and about whether or not the Belief is getting used to facilitate corruption within the types of company particular pursuits’ insider entry to the White Home.”
The Belief was established in 2007 as a nonpartisan, nonprofit accomplice of the Nationwide Park Service. “Nevertheless,” the senators write, “the dimensions of funds raised for President Trump’s ballroom, President Trump’s private involvement in fundraising for the venture, and the variety of company donors with enterprise earlier than the Trump Administration increase new questions on whether or not the Belief is facilitating corrupt entry to and favor-seeking from President Trump and his Administration.”
Justice division to ship federal screens to polling websites in California and New Jersey
The justice division announced on Friday that it intends to ship federal observers from its civil rights division to “monitor polling websites” in 5 California counties and one New Jersey county throughout “the upcoming November 4, 2025, normal election to make sure transparency, poll safety, and compliance with federal regulation”.
The deployment of federal observers to make sure compliance with the federal voting rights legal guidelines was a key enforcement provision of the Voting Rights Act handed in 1965, however for many years the screens had been dispatched to counties the place violations of the rights of Black voters and different racial minorities had been noticed or suspected.
Earlier than a 2013 supreme courtroom ruling, 153 counties and parishes in 11 states had been licensed by the legal professional normal 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 variety of states the place federal observers had been despatched to observe elections had widened to 27.
Thursday’s announcement that screens will solely be despatched to 6 counties, none of which had been below commentary final yr, is a marked departure.
The brand new counties the place voting can be noticed on election day this yr are:
-
Passaic county, New Jersey
-
Los Angeles county, California
-
Orange county, California
-
Riverside county, California
-
Kern county, California
-
Fresno county, California
In each states, Republican leaders has requested the screens.
Earlier this week, Republicans in Passaic, New Jersey, asked assistant US legal professional normal Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the civil rights division, to supervise the processing of mail-in ballots within the county.
Dhillon, a former vice chair of the California Republican social gathering who ran unsuccessfully to be chair of the Republican Nationwide Committee in 2023, was requested to ship screens to the 5 counties the present chair of the California Republicans, Corrin Rankin. In a letter to Dhillon this week, Rankin wrote: “we’ve got obtained reviews of irregularities in these counties that we concern will undermine both the willingness of voters to take part within the election or their confidence within the introduced outcomes of the election.”
Dhillon was beforehand a authorized adviser to Donald Trump’s 2020 marketing campaign and told Fox News on 5 November that yr, two days earlier than Joe Biden’s victory was confirmed, that the marketing campaign hoped the supreme courtroom would halt the counting of votes in areas with out Republican social gathering screens. “We’re ready for the US supreme courtroom – of which the president has nominated three justices – to step in and do one thing,” Dhillon stated. “And hopefully Amy Coney Barrett will come by.”
Voters in California can be contemplating a redistricting proposal supported by the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, which might counter new gerrymandered congressional maps drawn to favor Texas Republicans by briefly redrawing California’s maps to tilt the sector in favor of Democrats.
Pentagon confirms it obtained $130m verify from nameless donor to pay army salaries throughout authorities shutdown
Someday after Donald Trump stated an unnamed “pal” had simply despatched “a verify for $130m” for use to pay army salaries throughout the federal government shutdown, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed that the protection division “accepted an nameless donation of $130m below its normal present acceptance authority”.
“The donation was made on the situation that it’s used to offset the price of Service members’ salaries and advantages,” the Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, stated in a press release. “We’re grateful for this donor’s help after Democrats opted to withhold pay from troops.”
Though Trump referred to the $130m present as sufficient to cowl “any shortfall” in funds out there to pay army personnel throughout the federal government shutdown, the administration advised Congress final week that it used $6.5bn in funds allotted for analysis to pay troops for the primary half of October. Which means the donation will cowl simply 2% of the cash wanted to pay troops for the second half of the month.
It stays unclear what, if any, ethics assessment was carried out earlier than the donation was accepted.
Pentagon coverage says officers “should seek the advice of with their applicable Ethics Official earlier than accepting such a present valued in extra of $10,000 to find out whether or not the donor is concerned in any claims, procurement actions, litigation, or different specific issues involving the Division that should be thought-about previous to present acceptance”.
My colleague, Eric Berger, has been overlaying the impact of funding for the federal government’s meals stamp program working out, because the shutdown enters its twenty fourth day.
Federal {dollars} for the Supplemental Vitamin Help Program (Snap) are set to run on 1 November if the federal government doesn’t reopen, affecting the flexibility of 42 million individuals across the nation to place meals on the desk.
As Eric reviews, the Division of Agriculture just lately sent a letter to regional Snap administrators warning them that funding for Snap will run out on the finish of the month and directing them to carry funds “till additional discover”.
Greater than 200 Democratic representatives have urged the USDA to make use of contingency funds to proceed paying for Snap advantages.
Learn his full report under.
Here is a recap of the day thus far
-
The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, stated that he has spoken with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and determined to pause the promoting marketing campaign that drew ire from Donald Trump efficient Monday, in order that commerce talks can resume. “Our intention was at all times to provoke a dialog concerning the type of economic system that People need to construct and the influence of tariffs on staff and companies,” Ford said in a post on X. The Ontario authorities paid for and produced the advert which makes use of archival footage of a speech by Ronald Reagan in 1987 denouncing tariffs. In response, Trump has halted all commerce talks with Canada, whereas White Home officers stated at present that the negotiating course of thus far had been “troublesome”.
-
Earlier, Donald Trump continued his criticism over the commercial, accusing the nation of making an attempt to affect the US supreme courtroom. “Canada is making an attempt to illegally affect the US Supreme Court docket in one of the crucial vital rulings within the historical past of our Nation,” the president wrote in a Fact Social put up. The courtroom set a date of 5 November for arguments it should hear regarding the legality of Trump’s sweeping world tariffs.
-
Hakeem Jeffries, the Home minority chief, has endorsed Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner within the New York mayoral race. Till now, the highest Democrat, who represents a piece of Brooklyn in Congress, had not formally backed Mamdani, a lot to the frustration of progressives inside the social gathering. Jeffries stated in his assertion that he and Mamdani can have “areas of principled disagreement” however emphasised that the social gathering wanted to unite within the face of an “existential” menace from Donald Trump.
-
New York legal professional normal Letitia James has pleaded not responsible to 2 felony prices of financial institution fraud and making false statements to a monetary establishment. She was arraigned at a federal courtroom in Norfolk, Virginia. “This isn’t about me. It’s about all of us,” she stated, including that the justice system had been “used as a device for revenge” in a press release after her look in courtroom. “My religion is robust. I’ve perception within the justice system and the rule of regulation,” she added.
-
The US is sending the Gerald Ford plane service and its accompanying warships to waters off Latin America and the Caribbean, the Pentagon stated. Protection division spokesperson, Sean Parnell, stated that the transfer helps the Trump administration’s purpose of combating worldwide drug-trafficking networks. The improved pressure will bolster US capability to “detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and actions that compromise the protection and prosperity of the US homeland and our safety within the Western Hemisphere”. The added army presence is a serious escalation in Donald Trump’s latest marketing campaign of concentrating on alleged drug-carrying vessels in a sequence of strikes in latest weeks.
-
On that observe, US has carried out its tenth strike on an alleged drug-carrying vessel, the protection secretary, Pete Hegseth, stated on Friday. The Pentagon chief added that six individuals had been killed within the assault, asserting that they had been all members of the Venezuelan gang often called Tren de Aragua.
-
Costs continued to rise in September, growing at an annual charge of three%, in line with the most recent authorities inflation report. In September alone, costs rose by 0.3%, a slight slowdown after rising 0.4% in August. The information had been delayed by the continuing US authorities shutdown. In the meantime, the White Home said today that the continuing authorities shutdown, will “doubtless end in no October inflation report” – persevering with guilty Democratic lawmakers for the lapse in funding.
Robert Mackey
A federal choose in Portland, Oregon, on Friday rejected the Trump administration’s request to instantly carry her order blocking the deployment of federalized nationwide guard troops to the town, saying that she would resolve the matter by Monday.
The district courtroom choose, Karin Immergut, who is predicated within the metropolis, had beforehand issued two short-term restraining orders blocking the deployment of nationwide guard troops there, in response to a persistent however small protest exterior an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workplace.
Her first order, blocking the deployment of 200 troops from the Oregon nationwide guard, stated that Donald Trump has exceeded his authority by taking federal management of the troops primarily based on his declare that the town was in a state of war-like rise up. Trump’s evaluation, Immergut dominated, was “merely untethered to the information”.
When Trump responded to that order by sending 200 troops from California’s nationwide guard to Oregon, and threatened to ship 400 extra from Texas, Immergut decided it was an try to evade her order, and issued a second order barring the deployment of troops from wherever within the nation to Portland.
Immergut’s first order was lifted on Monday by a three-judge panel of the ninth circuit courtroom of appeals, over the robust dissent of the one choose on the panel who lives in Portland. However as a result of the federal government by no means appealed Immergut’s second order, it stays in impact and the deployment of troops stays blocked till she decides whether or not or to not carry or modify it in response to the appeals courtroom ruling.
At a digital listening to on Friday, Immergut cited two causes for her to delay lifting the second injunction. The primary was that the appeals courtroom didn’t handle a central reality in her second order: that she had issued it partially as a result of the federal government responded to her first order by trying to evade it. The second was that the ninth circuit appeals courtroom is at the moment contemplating a name from one in every of its judges to rehear the attraction of Immergut’s first order earlier than a bigger panel of 11 judges.
On the finish of the listening to, Immergut stated that she would resolve by Monday, if not earlier.
US deploys plane service to waters off Latin America, amid escalating anti-drug trafficking efforts
The US is sending the Gerald Ford plane service and its accompanying warships to Caribbean waters off Latin America, the Pentagon stated.
The protection division spokesperson, Sean Parnell, stated that the transfer helps the Trump administration’s purpose of combating worldwide drug-trafficking networks. The improved pressure will bolster US capability to “detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and actions that compromise the protection and prosperity of the US homeland and our safety within the Western Hemisphere,” Parnell stated in a press release. He didn’t say precisely when the Ford service can be stationed within the area.
The added army presence is a serious escalation in Donald Trump’s latest marketing campaign of concentrating on alleged drug-carrying vessels in a sequence of strikes in latest weeks. The latest of which killed six suspected members of the Venezuelan gang often called Tren de Aragua.
Ontario premier points pause of advert criticizing Trump tariffs
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, stated that he has spoken with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and has determined to pause the promoting marketing campaign that drew ire from Donald Trump efficient Monday, in order that commerce talks can resume.
“Our intention was at all times to provoke a dialog concerning the type of economic system that People need to construct and the influence of tariffs on staff and companies,” Ford said in a post on X.
The Ontario authorities paid for and produced the advert which makes use of archival footage of a speech by Ronald Reagan in 1987 denouncing tariffs. In response, Trump has halted all commerce talks with Canada, whereas White Home officers stated at present that the negotiating course of thus far had been “troublesome”.
Ford stated that earlier than the anti-tariff advert is taken off the air, he has directed his group “to maintain placing our message in entrance of People over the weekend” by taking part in the business through the first two World Sequence video games.
‘Pure electoral poison’: GOP teams slam Jeffries endorsement of Mamdani
Since Hakeem Jeffries, the highest Home Democrat, endorsed Zohran Mamdani in a press release to the New York Instances, each state and nationwide Republican organizations have slammed the transfer, typically with deceptive and unfaithful claims.
“In an act of supreme cowardice and capitulation, Democrats’ Minority Chief in Congress simply threw his lot in with an brazenly Communist, anti-Semitic, defund-the-police, globalize-the-intifada extremist,” stated NYGOP chair Ed Cox in a press release.
In the meantime, the Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), stated that Jeffries had “formally surrendered to Zohran Mamdani and the socialist mob now working the Democrat Get together”.
“Their far-left takeover has torched Democrats’ hopes of retaking the Home and turned their agenda into pure electoral poison. Each single Democrat is a keen confederate to their very own social gathering’s collapse,” stated Mike Marinella, a spokesperson for the NRRC.
Prime Home Democrat affords long-awaited endorsement of Mamdani
Hakeem Jeffries, the Home minority chief, has endorsed Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner within the New York mayoral race, in a press release.
Till now, the highest Democrat, who represents a piece of Brooklyn in Congress, had not formally backed Mamdani, a lot to the frustration of progressives inside the social gathering. Early voting in New York begins on Saturday 25 October.
Jeffries stated in his assertion that he and Mamdani can have “areas of principled disagreement” however the state assemblyman received “a free and honest election” within the Democratic major. Jeffries emphasised that the social gathering wanted to unite within the face of an “existential” menace from Donald Trump.
“I assist our nominee’s robust dedication to constructing a Metropolis the place on a regular basis New Yorkers can afford to reside. By necessity, this should contain a significant partnership with the non-public sector to dramatically improve the provision of reasonably priced properties,” Jeffries wrote.
For his half, Mamdani welcomed Jeffries’ endorsement, and stated he appears to be like ahead “to delivering a metropolis authorities, and constructing a Democratic Get together, relentlessly dedicated to our affordability agenda – and to combating Trump’s authoritarianism”.
