Huffman, Dexter Press National Park Service, Trust for the National Mall on Who Is Buying into Trump’s Ballroom

Huffman, Dexter Press National Park Service, Trust for the National Mall on Who Is Buying into Trump's Ballroom

Court-compelled agreement reveals White House handpicks donors and may be hiding their names from the group meant to vet them

Washington, D.C. - Today, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.) sent letters to National Park Service Acting Director Jessica Bowron and to Trust for the National Mall President and CEO Catherine Townsend and COO Cindy Willmann, requesting briefings on the fundraising agreements and donor vetting procedures behind President Trump's White House Ballroom.

"The Trust may have been used as a vehicle for billionaires and corporations to curry political favor with the Trump administration in a potential violation of federal law," the lawmakers wrote to the Trust for the National Mall.

The agreement, released only after a federal judge compelled it, lets the White House handpick the donors and keep their identities from the Trust, the organization responsible for screening them for conflicts of interest. It also strips the National Park Service's own protections against potential conflicts of interest, such as agency review of large donations, the audit required of partners raising more than $1 million, and Inspector General scrutiny. The Trust signed the agreement and denied the Committee's request for a meeting on the Ballroom donations last November, refusing to comply with the Ranking Member's request and those of other congressional inquiries.

"This is the exact opposite of a structure designed to prevent conflicts of interest," the lawmakers wrote. "A third-party vetting entity should have full visibility of the donor identity while the project proponent should not." The agreement waives the Park Service's own donor vetting guidance and leaves the public with no way to know who is paying or what they were promised.

The same anonymity provisions undercut the agreement's own ban on foreign money. The lawmakers wrote that it "appears to create a backdoor for foreign entities to donate without meaningful review by simply requesting anonymity," leaving a project of this size without "appropriate federal oversight to identify conflicts of interest through the donor vetting process."

The lawmakers warned the Trust that its own standing is at stake, writing that the administration has "imperiled the Trust for the National Mall's integrity" and that "without public transparency, the Trust risks eroding public trust and the rule of law."
"The White House is a protected site that belongs to the American people. It is not private property subject to the whims of a President determined to use it for his own aggrandizement," they wrote to the Park Service. "Working families facing high costs deserve a government focused on serving them, not private and anonymous donors funding the President's vanity projects as rising gas prices and inflation continue to raise the cost of living."

The lawmakers closed the letter to the Trust by writing that the White House and President's Park "are not Donald Trump's billionaire playground; they belong to the American people."

Read the letter to the National Park Service here.

Read the letter to the Trust for the National Mall here.

Background

In March 2026, Ranking Member Huffman sent a letter to Acting National Park Service Director Bowron opposing the destruction of the East Wing, the proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom, and any further modifications to President's Park without congressional consent, detailing how the Trump administration bypassed congressional authorization, subverted environmental and planning review processes, and courted billionaire donors in exchange for access and influence.

In October 2025, Ranking Members Huffman and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), along with Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), demanded answers from President Trump on the ballroom construction during the government shutdown, warning that the project was being undertaken "without public disclosure or proper consultation."

###

• Print
• Email
• Tweet