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Senate Dems Take Aim at Trump's $1 Billion 'Let-Them-Eat-Cake' Ballroom as US Economic Suffering Grows
"This week, Republicans will spend their time trying to get taxpayers to fund Trump’s parties," said Sen. Chris Murphy.
May 11, 2026
Even as US consumer sentiment hits record lows, gas prices remain stuck above $4.50 per gallon, and millions of Americans face cuts to basic assistance, Republicans in the US Senate are going to try to pass a massive spending bill that includes $1 billion for President Donald Trump's proposed luxury ballroom.
As Punchbowl News reported on Monday, Senate Democrats are planning to put the ballroom project in the spotlight and make supporting it as uncomfortable as possible for their Republican colleagues.
In a letter sent to fellow Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) slammed the GOP for giving priority to the president's vanity project amid economic suffering caused by his policies.
"At a time when Americans can't make ends meet, Republicans say 'Let them eat cake,'" Schumer wrote, "and then hand Trump a billion dollars to build a ballroom to serve it in. Americans do not need a ballroom. They need relief."
Schumer went on to blast his GOP colleagues as "Ballroom Republicans" who are "asking working families to pay the price while Donald Trump pockets the perks."
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) similarly drew a contrast between the economic pain being felt by Americans with Trump's desire for a luxury ballroom to be constructed at taxpayers' expense.
"Gas is over $6 a gallon in many places," Murphy wrote in a social media post. "Farms are going bankrupt. Billions are being wasted on a war that’s making us weaker. And this week, Republicans will spend their time trying to get taxpayers to fund Trump’s parties."
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said that the proposed ballroom "perfectly sums up what Trump really cares about," noting that "while Americans are paying more for gas and millions are losing their healthcare, Trump can only think of his vanity ballroom."
During a Monday appearance on MS NOW, Boyle said "there is no way in hell I am going to vote for $1 billion of taxpayer money to a stupid, unnecessary ballroom," and vowed to reverse the cuts to Medicaid that Republicans made last year with their budget law. The cuts are projected to result in 10 million Americans losing their insurance.
"There is no way in hell I am going to vote for $1 billion of taxpayer money to a stupid, unnecessary ballroom that is nothing but a vanity project for Donald Trump." @CongBoyle pic.twitter.com/jgRUpuN7h8
— Progressive Caucus (@USProgressives) May 11, 2026
\According to Punchbowl News, congressional Republicans behind the scenes have been quietly pleading with leadership to remove funding for the ballroom from the budget bill, as they think voting to fund the president's project would be politically toxic for them this fall.
"The ballroom security money is the biggest problem for the reconciliation bill, and it caught lots of GOP lawmakers off guard," Punchbowl News explained. "Moderate Republicans in both chambers are privately raising objections, bristling at the political downside of blessing Trump’s controversial ballroom project."
The Trump administration is apparently aware of Republicans' objections, and Punchbowl News' Laura Weiss reported on Monday that the White House is dispatching Secret Service Director Sean Curran to address lawmakers' concerns during a Tuesday luncheon.
Weiss noted that Republicans in swing districts "are privately balking at the reconciliation money for securing" the ballroom, but added that the Trump administration "really wants it."
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‘Yeah, So What?’ Elites Shrug Off Working-Class Pain Caused by Trump Tariffs, Iran War
"Does anyone really care if the Strait of Hormuz is open?" asked one banking executive.
May 08, 2026
Even as President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran and tariffs on foreign goods are hammering working-class Americans, a new report shows that members of the US elite have never had it better.
As The Financial Times reported on Thursday, attendees at the annual Milken Institute conference in Beverly Hills this week were living in "blissful ignorance" of the economic pain hitting workers in the US and around the world.
“People are glossing over the war with Iran,” an anonymous private credit firm executive told The Financial Times. “They've become desensitized to it. For some reason, people are saying, ‘Yeah, so what?'"
The Financial Times also quoted one person described as a "high-powered banker" who asked, "Does anyone really care if the Strait of Hormuz is open?"
Ted Koenig, chief executive of Monroe Capital, told The Financial Times that, while people at the conference were vaguely aware of the suffering of middle-class and working-class Americans, "at the end of the day, everyone’s focused on their own investment portfolios, especially here."
While the mood at the Milken conference may have been buoyant thanks to the record-setting stock market, fresh data released Friday showed Main Street America is feeling the exact opposite.
The University of Michigan's latest Surveys of Consumers found that consumer sentiment has hit another all-time low, driven in large part by anxiety over price increases caused by the Iran war.
"Taken together, consumers continue to feel buffeted by cost pressures, led by soaring prices at the pump," explained Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers. "Middle East developments are unlikely to meaningfully boost sentiment until supply disruptions have been fully resolved and energy prices fall."
Tahra Hoops, director of economic analysis at Chamber of Progress, noted 30% of respondents in the latest Surveys of Consumers said that Trump's tariffs were driving up their expenses.
"It would do well for Dems to continue to shout that gas prices are high and tariffs are raising your costs!" Hoops wrote.
While consumer spending has for months held up in the wake of low confidence, McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski said this week that signs of real strain are starting to appear.
As CNBC reported Thursday, Kempczinski described the current economic environment as "challenging," and warned that "it’s certainly not improving, and it may be getting a little bit worse."
The fast food CEO pointed to high gas prices as a particular strain on working-class consumers, who are the most regular customers at McDonald's.
“Clearly, when you have elevated gas prices, which is the core issue that I think we’re all seeing about in the press right now, gas prices, inflation on that, that is going to disproportionately impact low-income consumers,” Kempczinski said. “And so we expect the pressures there are going to continue.”
Kempczinski wasn't the only CEO to sound alarms about US consumer spending this week.
According to a Thursday report from Market Watch, Whirlpool CEO Marc Bitzer said during a quarterly earnings call that the appliance industry had seen a 7.4% drop in demand in the first quarter of 2026.
"This level of industry decline is similar to what we have observed during the global financial crisis," said Bitzer, "and even higher than during other recessionary periods."
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After Mills Exit, Platner Vows to Defeat Collins With 'Movement of Working Mainers'
Graham Platner, now the presumptive Democratic nominee in Maine's US Senate race, said that "we are now taking back our power.”
Apr 30, 2026
Graham Platner, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for the US Senate in Maine, delivered a preview of his general election pitch to voters on Thursday hours after his top primary rival, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, suspended her campaign.
Speaking to supporters in Augusta, Platner characterized his Senate bid as part of a broader effort to restore power to working-class Americans who for decades have been beaten down by big money interests.
"The race has never really been about me or any one person," said Platner. "It's about a movement of working Mainers who are fed up with being robbed by billionaires and the politicians who own them. We are now taking back our power."
Platner vowed to defeat incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), but he said the ultimate goal is to "start tearing down the system that, for too long, has forgotten and written off the people who make Maine and this country what it is."
Platner was joined by several Maine Democrats who were on hand to endorse his Senate bid.
Maine state Sen. Mike Tipping (D-08) said Platner must be elected to the US Senate because Collins "betrayed the people she was elected to serve."
Tipping warned that defeating Collins won't be easy because "we're about to see an ungodly amount of money spent in Maine, hundreds of millions of dollars more than ever before, and we're going to be flooded with ads."
Rather than being intimidated by the flood of corporate cash in the race, Tipping said that "we should get angrier every time we see, during the nightly news, or during a baseball game, or in the middle of a YouTube video, one of those ads, because we should remember that they were paid for by selling out Maine people."
Maine state Rep. Nina Milliken (D-16) said that Platner is "the type of leader that we don't see often enough," in part because "he understands that the path forward isn't about dropping to our knees for powerful people."
"At a moment when our democracy is under considerable strain," continued Milliken, "we need leaders who are willing to be clear about what's at stake. The answer to rising authoritarianism is not moderate half-measures or Band-Aids on severed limbs. It's building a movement that actually delivers for the people, one that's grounded in fairness, dignity, and economic justice."
While powerful national Democrats had backed Mills' candidacy in the primary, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) endorsed Platner shortly after the Maine governor suspended her campaign.
“After years of allowing Trump’s abuses of power, Senator Collins has never been more vulnerable,” they said, “and we will work with the presumptive Democratic nominee Graham Platner to defeat her.”
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