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Apr 28, 2026

Republicans Suddenly ERUPT In Ballroom Shift To Force Taxpayer Disaster

Republicans, including Lindsey Graham, Mike Johnson and more, suddenly flip to pushing for taxpayers to foot the bill for Donald Trump's colossal and massively expensive White House ballroom, which Trump has relentlessly promoted as fully donor funded. John Iadarola and Jackson White break it down on The Damage Report.
  • 5 minutes
The ballroom will be a solution for this. I think we gotta build that ballroom as soon as possible. The ballroom makes total sense. A ballroom is imperative for a lot of reasons. president needs the ballroom. Well, that definitely seems to be the case. The president's been [00:00:17] very clear he needs ballroom. But look, who says that the government can't quickly, swiftly leap into action after gun violence? I mean, I was kind of thinking that they do like regulations or like funding or bans on certain types of guns or some sort of mental health thing. I [00:00:32] should have been more specific. I'm really wasting this ancient monkey's paw I found in that tomb. But what they can do is they can build ballroom immediately after gun violence, even if it has nothing to do with the gun violence. Even if it wouldn't have stopped the gun violence, even if it isn't gonna protect anyone because the vast majority of Americans will never even [00:00:48] step foot inside of it. But they can do that. And now the government has decided, and as you saw the media has decided, they don't just want the ballroom. Now they want to fund ballroom. Take a look. We're gonna introduce legislation that would authorize $400 million to be spent [00:01:07] to build the presidential ballroom. Underneath there will be a lot of military stuff. There will be a secret service annex. And we've paid for it by offsetting it with custom fees. But the estimate is $332 million. gonna do 400 million cuz I think it's probably gonna take [00:01:28] more. Private donations can be used, but I think they should be used for buying China and stuff like that. Okay, so we already have $400 million supposedly and we're gonna use that to buy China. And instead, we're just gonna build the whole thing, which is definitely gonna cost [00:01:45] $323 million. We know down to the million even though this thing won't be built for like four years. We definitely know, but it has to happen. has to everywhere you turn, social media, the government, the literally senators are now pushing for this. It has to happen. And I am just appalled by the fact that never has a movement with so few testicles needed so much ballroom. [00:02:05] And that is the only thing they can all agree on Jackson. So now they want to pay for it, which was like the only thing that was supposed to mitigate how stupid this entire venture was, was that we weren't paying for it. What do you think? I mean, it's like you said, [00:02:22] the vast majority of Americans will never visit the ballroom, let alone go to Washington DC at all. So why is this something that the country needs? People don't care about this and this also just goes to show how old Donald Trump is. Ballroom is kind of even like an older, [00:02:40] this is like 1700s type of stuff. What year do you think it is? Why is this going to impress anyone? We have football stadiums that can hold tens of thousands of people. And I'll bring that up too because on Fox News, another one that we didn't just play, there was a woman [00:02:59] talking about how we have to have this ballroom so that the world can see that we're capable of hosting large events. Again, this is NFL country, we host large events all the time, we're more than capable of this. WrestleMania was two weeks ago. it right? Like what does [00:03:17] this even mean? But yeah, Trump to me, just like he just taken a nap, the one hour a day that he sleeps and he's just taking a nap and he's just like, I mean, this dude, he's like a brain damaged four year old. He really is. He really is. This is just an excuse for [00:03:36] all them to give Donald Trump what he wants. That's literally it. But not everyone is necessarily on board. Senators are getting on board more than there should be. Can we jump to Representative Rob Menendez? We'll jump ahead a little bit. uh Democrat, he's asked about his thoughts on funding it. There's an affordability crisis out there. one gives a **** about the [00:03:55] President's ballroom except the President, right? That's the reality, but Republicans will do whatever they can to appease the President. They will not stop. uh And I definitely agree. I mean, look, most Democrats are not going to sign on to this. You're not surprised. Even some Republicans though don't want to. Rick Scott said it's all funded. So why are [00:04:14] we doing this? Why are we keep spending this money? So that's good. It doesn't offset the terrible things he's done, the crimes he's committed, but good from Rick Scott there. And uh Rand Paul says he already has the money, which it feels like they're very blithely passing over as a devastating counterpoint. You said you already have the money, why would we possibly [00:04:32] fund it? uh But final thought, it is a bipartisan effort because there is a Democrat. who has signed on to paying for it. And can you guess who I'm talking about here? Can you guess who's Democrat? Yeah, it's that one. It's John Fetterman. mean, Kristen Sinema would have if she were [00:04:50] here, but it's John Fetterman. Final thoughts, Jackson. John Fetterman's new name is Titties. And I'm just gonna leave it at that. I did this video of him. And he had on one of his classic [00:05:06] hoodies and I mean, his titties was just big as hell. You know what I'm saying? So I'm just gonna talk about him like that from now on because he had a stroke and completely lost his mind. This will be his only term. If he runs as a Republican, they're not gonna elect him. This [00:05:24] is it for him. I really don't know if he was just always completely full of it. Or if, I mean, the stroke, I don't know what happened, but all I know is that from now on, his name is titties. Well, I'm sure Disney is now being investigated for our joke.

The Damage Report: April 28, 2026

Hosts: John Iadarola   Guests: Jackson White