You can bet that as the government shutdown continues, President Donald Trump is laser-focused on maintaining mission-critical operations. And what does Trump consider mission-critical? Continuing construction on his big, garish, stupid new ballroom.
Americans were no doubt on tenterhooks, wishing and hoping that Trump would be able to keep building the 90,000-square-foot monstrosity that will dwarf the White House, make everything look as tacky as Mar-a-Lago, and, of course, be named after Trump.
According to the White House, it’s totally fine that construction will continue despite the government shutdown because the funds aren’t tied to 2026 appropriations, but are instead from private donors.
Yeah, that doesn’t really make it any better. The fact that YouTube just bribed Trump with $22 million to help build the thing still doesn’t make it so essential that construction needs to continue during the shutdown.
Related | Trump's tacky ballroom will be way bigger than the actual White House
YouTube isn’t alone in currying favor with the president by giving him money. Other ballroom bribe enthusiasts—er, donors—reportedly include R.J. Reynolds, Palantir, and Lockheed Martin. In a real classy touch, Trump is weighing etching the names of donors onto the ballroom building.
While the incredibly crucial work of building an ugly monument to Trump’s ego goes on, the actual work of government? Not so much.
The Office of Management and Budget took the opportunity to use the shutdown to kill $8 billion in energy funding, calling it “Green New Scam funding.” In what is surely just a coincidence, all of the canceled funding affects states with at least one Democratic senator who voted against the GOP’s continuing resolution, which led to the shutdown.
It’s so cool that government funding is now just something doled out based on the rage-fueled whims of people like Trump and OMB head Russell Vought.
Also closed during the shutdown? Government oversight websites—at least 15 of them. The Office of Inspector General websites for multiple departments, including Agriculture, Education, Justice, Interior, and Veterans Affairs, are all dark.
OMB is withholding funds for the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, which means there are no funds for the inspectors general. So, any access to watchdog reports and whistleblower hotlines is just … gone, replaced with a message that they’ve been shuttered “due to a lack of apportionment of funds.”
Yeah, about that.
CIGIE isn’t funded by appropriations, so it isn’t affected by the shutdown, as it has a no-year revolving account. It’s such a ridiculously corrupt move by the administration that it spawned a letter from GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Chuck Grassley demanding answers about the move and asking the administration to promptly apportion funds to CIGIE.
However, according to the administration, the watchdogs must be shut down not because of a lack of funds, but because they are corrupt. An OMB spokesperson said that “inspectors general are meant to be impartial watchdogs identifying waste and corruption on behalf of the American people. Unfortunately, they have become corrupt, partisan, and in some cases, have lied to the public.”
So in review: not corrupt and totally important to continue during a shutdown? Construction on Trump’s hideous ballroom, possible only because private companies are currying favor with the president by paying for the thing. Totally corrupt and unnecessary during a shutdown? Government watchdogs.
Critics, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, are seeing right through this song and dance.
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