White House Security Money Transfer Probed by Key GOP Senator

A White House office sent money to the Secret Service for security at the president’s residence, drawing bipartisan scrutiny into whether taxpayer dollars are going toward the construction of a politically fraught ballroom.

The Office of Management and Budget released $352 million from Republicans’ 2025 tax and spending law to the Secret Service late last week to pay for “White House Security Measures,” according to disclosures made public this week.

The funding transfer raised eyebrows in Congress, where Democrats and some Republicans have objected to the use of government money for the ballroom project that President Donald Trump launched without congressional authorization.

Most of those funds — $340.8 million — came from an account dedicated to “procurement, construction, and improvements.” Another $10.8 million came from operations and support money.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) told Bloomberg Government she directed staff Tuesday night to look into it.

“The president said that the ballroom would be constructed with private donations,” Collins said Wednesday. “This raises the question of whether federal funds are also being used for it, or whether these are just security upgrades that the Secret Service needs.”

Spokespeople at the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service referred questions to OMB, which did not return requests for comment.

Republicans included $1.17 billion for the Secret Service in last year’s budget reconciliation bill (Public Law 119-21) to pay for personnel, training facilities, programming, and technology.

GOP senators rebelled at sending another $1 billion to the Secret Service to cover the security costs of the overhaul of the East Wing, ultimately stripping the money out of their sequel budget reconciliation bill (Public Law 119-98) before sending it to the House earlier this month.

Democrats on Tuesday seized on a Washington Post report that the administration planned to use taxpayer funding to cover more than half of the $600 million project. The Justice Department is appealing an earlier ruling that the project can’t move forward without congressional approval.

“President Trump is lying to American families about who is footing the bill for his ballroom,” House Budget Committee ranking member Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) said in a statement. “Trump and Republicans would rather waste taxpayer dollars on a ballroom instead of helping families struggling to make ends meet.”

Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee also plan to “fight for the transparency into how taxpayer money is spent that the American people deserve,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the panel’s ranking member, said in a statement.