President Donald Trump's claim that wealthy donors will fund the White House ballroom continues to unravel, as reports unearth the real cost to taxpayers.
"Trump has been lying the whole time with full knowledge of the cost and the cost to taxpayers," political analyst Brian Tyler Cohensaid, pointing to new reporting by The Washington Post.
The Post looked at early project cost estimates by the contractor tasked with building the ballroom and found that it will cost about $600 million, with about half of that coming from taxpayers.
"Why would Trump try to screw something that he claims to love?" Cohen asked, jabbing at Trump's claims of loving America. "At a time when Americans are hurting as a result of his failed policies, this president has chosen to stick us with the bill."
Cohen also pointed out that the list of the 27 ballroom donors so far includes Amazon, Apple, Google, Lockheed Martin, Meta, and Palantir, and that more than half of the donors have received huge government contracts since making their donations.
"Hey, not a bad deal," Cohen joked. "It's sort of like if at Christmas time, he donated a little bit of money to Santa and then in January he returned the favor by giving you all the money he collected."