Donald Trump has hosted a bunch of billionaires in his new $200,000,0000 glitzy White House ballroom, and it's left critics enraged.
The outrage goes back some months now, with things first kicking off in summer (31 July) when Trump's team first announced the renovations as part of his nine-figure plan to restore the White House, which included the controversial decision to adorn several sections of his residence in gold, which many have branded as utterly 'tacky'.
In the announcement, the administration shared that a staggering $200 million (£150m) would be plied into the construction of a brand new ballroom.
The backlash was two-fold: some critics feared that the elaborate renovations formed part of Trump's plan to remain in the Oval Office for a third term while others were astounded by the way that the money was being spent, especially after the US government shut down at the start of this month (1 October).
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Government shutdown explained
It's the first time this has happened since 2018, during Trump's first term as president, after Republicans and Democrats failed to reach an agreement on a funding plan before the deadline on the 1st.
This is because these federal agencies depend on their funding being approved by Congress to then allow for the President to sign budget legislation for the financial year ahead.
However, as both political parties are pushing for different things and neither is backing down, both proposals that would have funded the government past the deadline (30 September) failed in the Senate, and neither was put into action.
Democrats were pushing to stop the Medicaid cuts and extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, while Republicans instead wanted a 'clean' funding bill without those additions.
Ballroom backlash
After catching light of the news that, despite the government shutdown, the pricey White House renovation would continue while non-essential functions of government are going to be frozen and workers will be furloughed, or even laid off, critics rushed to social media to call out the controversial move.
However, it's important to note that, according to a White House Office of Management and Budget memo, the ballroom's construction is being privately funded by Trump and other private donors, meaning that it is not impacted by the federal budget negotiations that brought about the shutdown, reports PEOPLE.
Billionaires in the ballroom
And now the latest update in the saga sees the Wall Street Journal report that more than three dozen organisations and individuals, including companies with business before the federal government, attended a dinner with the 79-year-old Republican on Wednesday evening (15 October), after opening their chequebooks to support the new $250 million ballroom under construction at the White House'.
The guest list, which was obtained by the WSJ, included representatives from Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft.
"We have a lot of legends in the room tonight, and that’s why we’re here to celebrate you because you’ve given tremendous amounts of money to see a ballroom built for the first time at the White House," Trump told his dinner attendees.
Such an event came on the 15th day of the government shutdown, which has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers go unpaid for weeks now.
The Bipartisan Policy Center reports that at least 700,000 federal workers have been furloughed, with nearly as many continuing to work without pay.
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News
Rhiannon Ingle