Federal Judge seems Skeptical of Trump’s Ballroom, Compares the Project’s Corporate-Funded Scheme to a “Rube Goldberg Contraption”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — At a hearing Thursday on the White House Ballroom Project, a federal judge appeared deeply skeptical of the legality of Trump’s circuitous scheme to fund it without congressional oversight, comparing it several times to a “Rube Goldberg Contraption.”
Trump has been collecting hundreds of millions of dollars from corporations and billionaires for the ballroom project through a tax-exempt charity and two government agencies. A Public Citizen report found that over two dozen corporate donors backing the ballroom project benefited from nearly $43 billion in contracts last year and $279 billion over the last five years, raising major concerns about corruption and pay-to-play.
In response, Public Citizen Democracy Advocate Jon Golinger said, “Trump seems to hope that funding the White House Ballroom project like a Rube Goldberg Contraption was a clever way to evade scrutiny but now that it’s under the spotlight his shady corrupt scheme is starting to crumble.”
After Thursday’s hearing, the judge indicated he would likely issue a ruling in the ballroom lawsuit brought by a preservation organization sometime in February.