LinkedIn on Thursday, May 7, 2026

After repeatedly telling us that his glorious ballroom would be funded by private money – without disclosing the sources of those funds – President Trump is now asking Congress for one billion dollars to pay for it.  Not incidentally, one billion is five times the two hundred million he originally told us the ballroom would cost.

Other than just asking for the money, Trump hasn’t shown Congress any technical drawings and detailed estimates of the costs of construction to justify his request.  Nothing to explain the one billion dollars other than that he, “Donald J. Trump,” has told them that’s the amount he needs to construct something he has no authority to build.  …Was the contract to build the ballroom awarded by competitive bidding?  Of course not.

Did he lie about having private money to build the ballroom?  Absolutely.  President Trump is a pathological liar.

Is there a chance that Trump wants Congress to give him more than he needs to build the ballroom and that he’ll spend the surplus for whatever he chooses, regardless of the specifics of the Congressional authority that provided those funds?  You bet there is, a really good chance that is.  Trump considers allocations of funds by Congress to be guidelines that he is free to consider, or not.

Donald Trump companies have declared bankruptcy six times, including an Atlantic City casino.  Most people consider casinos to be licenses to print money and yet President Trump’s casino failed.

According to a December 5, 2025 Congressional Joint Economic Committee bulletin, our national debt has increased by $2.23 trillion over the past year, growing at an average rate of $6.12 billion per day.  Pollsters like to tell us how Trump is “under water” relative to various approval criteria.  “Under water?”  What the polls don’t tell us is that the entire country is drowning in debt, a financially existential problem that President Trump and Congressional Republicans are only making worse.

We’re borrowing money at the rate of billions of dollars a day to wage an illegal war on Iran.  And now Trump wants another $1.4 trillion for the “Department of War” as he calls it.  And for what?  Trump class battleships we don’t need and other national security technologies that are behind the times?  For the personal enrichment of family, friends and contributors who profit from government contracts?  To pay for the takeover of Cuba and the pursuit of his other authoritarian dreams around the world?

Our current national debt is $38.8 trillion which is more than our country’s Gross Domestic Product which is just under $32 trillion.  On an annual basis, interest on our national debt is over one trillion dollars.  We’re actually borrowing more money to pay the debt service on money we’ve already borrowed.  Like the family that’s making payments on one credit card using another credit card.  Ladies and gentlemen, we’re one serious recession or worse from defaulting on our country’s financial obligations, from not being able to borrow our way out of trouble – and then what?

The bankrupting of America didn’t start with President Trump, but it’s clear that he’s doing nothing to correct the problem.  What he is doing, with his gross over-spending and tax savings for the super wealthy, is making our financial predicament worse.  And now he’s telling Congress to borrow another one billion for the Trump ballroom?! Conveniently located where he tore down the historic East Wing of the White House without asking for anyone’s permission.

It’s not that Donald Trump isn’t a good businessman.  He’s not, but then being a good businessman isn’t his objective.  Not really.  His objective is doing whatever he damn well pleases – and doing it with other people’s money with a reckless disregard for the law and for the damage to our economy he’s causing in the process.  For President Trump, wealth, power and the trinkets/ballrooms of fame are measures of greatness, regardless of how they are accumulated, legitimate or not, and who is hurt along the way.  With the tacit support of his enablers in Congress, he’s bankrupting our country with profound consequences, financially and socially, that he can’t understand and cares nothing about.

This is a reality the Democrats need to do a much, much better job selling to prospective voters.

-Les Cohen