{"id":1055422,"date":"2025-07-31T16:00:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1055422"},"modified":"2025-07-31T16:00:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:00:22","slug":"let-them-eat-cake-trump-announces-200-million-white-house-ballroom-after-ripping-away-health-care-and-food-assistance-for-working-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/let-them-eat-cake-trump-announces-200-million-white-house-ballroom-after-ripping-away-health-care-and-food-assistance-for-working-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Them Eat Cake: Trump Announces $200 Million White House Ballroom After Ripping Away Health Care and Food Assistance for Working Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"449\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1050776\" srcset=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png 1101w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?resize=300,132 300w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?resize=768,337 768w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?resize=1024,449 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Weeks after kicking millions of Americans off their health care and ripping away food assistance, Donald Trump and his billionaire friends are blowing $200 million on building a lavish ballroom.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In response to the announcement today that Trump is building a $200 million ballroom in the White House,<\/em><em> <\/em><strong><em>DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer released the following statement:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRight after ripping away health care and food assistance from working families, Donald Trump is starting construction on a $200 million ballroom to host his billionaire donors and ultrarich friends. After orchestrating the largest wealth transfer in history from the working and middle classes to the ultrawealthy, and starting a trade war that has accelerated inflation and driven up prices, Trump\u2019s priorities are loud and clear: billionaires first and working families last.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>PLAYGROUND FOR THE RICH: Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies are potentially gutting the historic White House East Wing to build their own excessive $200 million ballroom.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/o_2cG-RFmFg\">Karoline Leavitt:<\/a> \u201cWe are proud to announce that the construction of the new White House ballroom will begin. \u2026 The White House state ballroom will be a much-needed and exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of innately designed and carefully crafted space with a seated capacity of 650 people, which is a significant increase from the 200-person seated capacity in the East Room of the White House.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TaylorPopielarz\/status\/1950975081045262407\">Taylor Popielarz, Spectrum News<\/a>: \u201cWhite House @PressSec announces <strong>President Trump is going to have a $200 million ballroom built on the White House grounds.\u201d&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>While Trump builds himself a ballroom, Americans are suffering under sky-high prices and massive layoffs thanks to Trump\u2019s disastrous economic agenda.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.challengergray.com\/blog\/summer-lull-ends-july-job-cuts-spike-tech-ai-tariffs-blamed\/\">Challenger, Gray, and Christmas<\/a>: <strong>\u201cU.S.-based employers announced 62,075 job cuts in July, up 29% from June\u2019s 47,999. It is up 140% from 25,885 announced in the same month last year,<\/strong> according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray &amp; Christmas. \u2026&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cSo far this year, companies have announced 806,383 job cuts, the highest YTD since 2020 when 1,847,696 were announced.<\/strong> It is up 75% from the 460,530 job cuts announced through the first seven months of last year and is <strong>up 6% from the 2024 full year total of 761,358<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/byheatherlong\/status\/1950898692698894734?s=12\">Heather Long, Washington Post<\/a>:<strong> \u201cJUST IN: PCE inflation rose 0.3% in June. That takes the annual inflation increase up to 2.6% (highest since February).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201c\u2018Core\u2019 PCE inflation <\/strong>(excluding food and energy) <strong>ticked up to 2.8%<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe most interesting data is WHAT people are and aren\u2019t buying. Take a look at the chart. <strong>People are really staying away from cars and car parts out of fear of tariffs.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ernietedeschi\/status\/1950898167781666919\">Ernie Tedeschi, Yale Budget Lab<\/a>: \u201cCore PCE inflation comes in 0.26% MM (3.1% annualized) in June, 2.8% YY.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDurable goods have risen in price by 1.7% so far year to date. Other than the depths of the pandemic, <strong>that\u2019s the strongest 6-month rise in PCE durables prices since 1987.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This comes just weeks after Trump signed his billionairefirst budget, ripping health care and food assistance away from millions of Americans.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83d\udcb8 <strong>Working Americans will lose <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-tax-bill-hurts-poor-helps-rich-cbo-f3d9d46ca3e829d6b850dca30b91a2b6\"><strong>$1,600<\/strong><\/a><strong> a year,<\/strong> while high-earners will see their incomes boosted by $12,000.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83c\udfe5 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/research\/health\/by-the-numbers-senate-republican-reconciliation-bill-takes-health-coverage-away\"><strong>17 million<\/strong><\/a><strong> Americans could lose health insurance,<\/strong> a whopping 27% of nursing homes could be forced to close their doors, and more than 300 rural hospitals could close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83c\udf5e <strong>More than <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.urban.org\/research\/publication\/how-senate-budget-reconciliation-snap-proposals-will-affect-families-every-us\"><strong>22 million<\/strong><\/a><strong> working families could lose some or all of their food benefits.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 <a href=\"https:\/\/equitablegrowth.org\/congressional-republicans-budget-bill-is-the-most-regressive-in-at-least-40-years\/\">Experts<\/a> say it is <strong>\u201cthe most regressive tax and budget law<\/strong> in at least the past 40 years\u2014and possibly ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Weeks after kicking millions of Americans off their health care and ripping away food assistance, Donald Trump and his billionaire friends are blowing $200 million on building a lavish ballroom. In response to the announcement today that Trump is building a $200 million ballroom in the White House, DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer released [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":293,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1055422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Let Them Eat Cake: Trump Announces $200 Million White House Ballroom After Ripping Away Health Care and Food Assistance for Working Americans - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/let-them-eat-cake-trump-announces-200-million-white-house-ballroom-after-ripping-away-health-care-and-food-assistance-for-working-americans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-31T20:00:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1101\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shelby Reese\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shelby Reese\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/let-them-eat-cake-trump-announces-200-million-white-house-ballroom-after-ripping-away-health-care-and-food-assistance-for-working-americans\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/let-them-eat-cake-trump-announces-200-million-white-house-ballroom-after-ripping-away-health-care-and-food-assistance-for-working-americans\/\",\"name\":\"Let Them Eat Cake: Trump Announces $200 Million White House Ballroom After Ripping Away Health Care and Food Assistance for Working Americans - 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