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Here's the Scoop
Who’s Paying for Trump’s $1B Ballroom and Internal DHS Clashes Over Immigration
00:24:46
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- [00:01]
Peter Nicholas
What we're seeing is something of a bait and switch that Trump had said this would be free of charge, this would be gratis, and now taxpayers are going to be on the hook for at least some part of it.
- [00:12]
Yasmin Vesugin
Hey, everybody. Welcome to here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vesugin. So today on the show, President Trump's East Wing ballroom revamp was supposed to be privately funded. So why are Republicans now asking taxpayers to be on the hook for a billion dollars? Plus, we have an exclusive look inside the Department of Homeland Security, where leaders have been reportedly clashing over how to carry out President Trump's mass deportation agenda. How some officials staked their whole career to defy the orders. Up first, though, Senate Republicans released an Immigration and Border Patrol funding bill this week. Included in that legislation is an earmark for the, quote, unquote, East Wing modernization project to the tune of $1 billion. Now, when the White House first announced the project last July, President Trump said that construction of the new ballroom would cost $200 million and be funded by private donors. Comcast Corporation, by the way, the parent company of NBCUniversal, is one of those donors. Then, after tearing down the East Wing, President Trump announced on Truth Social that the ballroom would now cost 3 to $400 million with, quote, zero taxpayer funding. Now, GOP leadership says that the new security enhancements for the ballroom have more than double the cost again. So is Congress going to allow the expensive project to move forward? And why is it that taxpayers are suddenly on the hook for what the President had said previously was privately funded and or a gift? For this, I want to bring in Peter Nicholas, senior White House reporter for NBC News. Hi, Peter.
- [01:45]
Peter Nicholas
Hi. Good to be with you.
- [01:47]
Yasmin Vesugin
Great to have you. Okay, so. So I kind of laid it out here, but the president said, listen, we're gonna be building this ballroom. It's a huge reconstruction project. It's for the benefit of the American people, for the People's House. And it is funded by the way it is paid for. I have raised all the money. It is privately funded. Taxpayers won't have to pay a dollar of this reconstruction project. Then, after the shooting at the White House Correspondents dinner in Washington, D.C. a group of Republican senators introduced legislation to fund the ballroom for 400 million dol. Why did those senators say that the shooting made the switch from private to now public funding necessary?
- [02:30]
Peter Nicholas
Well, the lawmakers want to essentially give congressional approval to this project. A federal judge has intervened and tried to stop the project, saying that Congress's authorization is needed. So one bonus to the congressional effort to fund this would be to provide the authorization that would do away with a lawsuit that has beenthat has become an obstacle to this project. So that's one aspect of it. The other is some members of Congress are saying that it would be better if this is publicly funded. Lindsey Graham is a sponsor of a separate piece of legislation that says that would fund the ballroom. And he says that the money that Trump raised privately could be used for China and dishware, things like that, but that taxpayers would essentially pay for it, which is how major renovations at the White House have been done in the past. Trump, in selling the ballroom, is in making a case for it had said this would be entirely free to taxpayers, it wouldn't cost anything. But of late, it's emerged that that's not entirely the case, that there are security improvements enhancements. He wants the building to be drone proof, bulletproof, potentially even missile resistant. And those upgrades and those enhancements cost money. And it looks like taxpayers are going to be on the hook for it.
- [03:44]
Yasmin Vesugin
So how is the president then spinning this? Because he's looking like he's been telling a tall tale that it's going to be privately funded.
- [03:51]
Peter Nicholas
Well, he is emphasizing that the ballroom proper will be privately funded, that that money isthat was raised privately, and that he himself contributed to that. That will be used to underwrite finance the project, at least the ballroom piece of it. He's not talking so much about these security enhancements, but the White House issued a statement saying that it's open to accepting this public money for those security enhancements above ground and below ground.
- [04:19]
Yasmin Vesugin
And now we're looking at $1 billion in this reconciliation bill that's going to go towards the East Wing reconstruction. So what is that going to entail? Why is the price tag so huge?
- [04:31]
Peter Nicholas
Well, Democrats are asking the same question, and they're saying that that seems like too much money. We spoke to Chris Coons, Democratic Senator from Delaware, and also we spoke to Senator Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut, another Democrat, who said that they're not going to support this funding measure. And what we're seeing is something bait and switch that Trump had said this would be free of charge, this would be gratis. And now taxpayers are going to be on the hook for at least some part of it, I guess, the security enhancements. So this is turning, this is going to turn in to be a showdown in Congress where both Republicans and Democrats may have an up or down vote on this ballroom funding measure.
- [05:12]
Yasmin Vesugin
I mean, it's not just Democrats that have been criticizing the reconstruction project at the White House. We've heard from some Republicans as well. So can they get it across the finish line? Can they get this funding?
- [05:22]
Peter Nicholas
I think that's a really good question. I don't think we know for sure. They have the benefit that the 60 vote threshold, it won't be needed here. This is what's called in Washington jargon a reconciliation measure. A simple majority of votes, 50, 51 votes in the Senate is all that's needed. And Republicans do control the Senate. But as you mentioned, some Republicans have been critical of this project. And at a time when many Americans are feeling strapped financially, when gas prices are averaging more than $4 a gallon, this is a hard sell to go back to constituents and say we approve public money. That's part of this ballroom project. And I think what the White House talking point here would be, well, this is for the President's safety, for the safety of future presidents. These security enhancements will make it verycreate a nice, safe, large space for presidents to conduct state dinners and things like that without fearing this sort of incident. We saw at the White House correspondents dinner at a local Washington D.C. hotel where gunman entered the premises. So, you know, this will be part of the pitch that the President and the white and supporters in Congress will make, is that the ballroom with its security provisions will be something that future presidents can benefit from for many years.
- [06:38]
Yasmin Vesugin
It's one thing to be critical of the president, it's another thing to actually vote against him. And Josh Hawley, Rick Scott, Rand Paul, they've all said they don't think that this ballroom should be publicly funded. But the question is, are they actually going to pull the lever against the President and against this funding?
- [06:53]
Peter Nicholas
Well, that's a really good question. We'll have to go back to them. The President can be pretty persuasive. And when the President puts his foot down and says he wants something, Republicans to this point have generally been very compliant. But Trump, well, his poll numbers are dropping and it remains to be seen whether he has the same kind of clout in Congress to get something over the finish line, particularly since midterm elections are coming up and this might be a hard vote for Republicans to explain, explain why, you know, they appropriated all this money for a ballroom.
- [07:26]
Yasmin Vesugin
You know, in talking about this legal quagmire when it comes to ballroom reconstruction, it is still an open question as to whether or not they need congressional approval, authorization for the construction of the East Wing. It's heading to a federal appeals court. And a decision is not expected at the earliest until mid June or so. So what is happening right with the construction of the East Wing?
- [07:51]
Peter Nicholas
Construction is continuing while this case plays out. The ballroom is still being built. A judge had stayed construction, but the administration appealed and construction has been allowed to go forward. But what's unclear is if Trump cannot get congressional approval, if an appeals court decides congressional approval was needed, if the ballroom is just stopped, and then what we have is a big hole in the ground. So that is one alternative, one outcome. But it seems like Congress, if it wants to, can sidestep that problem by approving the ballroom or approving some use for it. That's the legal step that Judge Leon, a US District judge in Washington, said was needed and wasn't taken.
- [08:37]
Yasmin Vesugin
And to be clear here, the ballroom wouldn't even be done until the end of the president's term.
- [08:41]
Peter Nicholas
Yeah, I believe Trump has said that it would be done. It would be completed before the end of the term. But, you know, the legal hurdles have pushed back that timeline and thrown it into jeopardy.
- [08:53]
Yasmin Vesugin
Peter Nicholas, thank you.
- [08:55]
Peter Nicholas
Thank you very much. Good to be with you.
- [08:59]
Yasmin Vesugin
All right, we are going to take a very quick break, and when we are back, there has been a lot of criticism of President Trump's immigration agenda, and some of it came from inside the Department of Homeland Security. We're going to get some exclusive reporting on the internal conflicts after a break. Okay. And while you're waiting, why not take a second to subscribe to our podcast wherever you are listening. And if you are already a subscriber, thank you. And do not forget to rate and review us. It really helps. We'll be back in a minute.
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- [10:00]
Kate Snow
Hi, it's Kate Snow, NBC News anchor, host of the podcast the Drink. This month, I'm grabbing a Matcha latte with comedian Taylor Tomlinson. The Drink is always about someone's journey to the top, and Taylor's story is remarkable. She tells us all about her unlikely path from performing in churches all the way to headlining her own Netflix specials like her latest Prodigal Daughter. And she opens up about her religious upbringing, what drew her to stand up and how she feels when she gets on that stage. Hope you'll listen and follow the drink wherever you get your podcasts.
- [10:33]
Willie Geist
Hey, guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit down podcast. On this week's episode, I get together with Red Hot Stand up comedian Nikki Glaser to talk about the long career grind that has brought her to this starring moment, hosting the Golden Globes killing at the Tom Brady roast. And now with another hit special on Hulu. You can get our conversation now for free wherever you download your podcasts.
- [11:03]
Yasmin Vesugin
And we are back with here's the scoop from NBC News. So the Department of Homeland Security has been a huge source of controversy for the Trump administration. There have been a lot of questions raised about everything from their immigration policies to ICE deportation strategies to investigations about contracts and ad campaigns and allegations, of course, of an affair. But internally, there have also been a lot of tensions. Leaders have allegedly privately clashed over how to carry out the president's immigration agenda, including how to accomplish the president's goal to deport 1 million people during his first year back in office. And we are now getting an exclusive inside look at the fiery tensions among immigration officials from NBC News senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley, who has detailed them in her new book undue the Inside Story of Trump's Mass Deportation Program, which is out now, by the way. And Julia is joining me now. Hi, Julia.
- [12:00]
Julia Ainsley
Hi.
- [12:01]
Yasmin Vesugin
I think as we are looking from the outside in with this administration and when it comes to immigration enforcement, there is this sense that everybody inside this administration is in lockstep with the president and how it is he wants to institute his demands. Right. One million deportations in the first year in office, a goal he has not reached, by the way. But in your reporting and in your book, you actually detail that was not the case early on in this administration. And there was a particular blowup you detail in your book about how to institute some of the president's demands. Can you walk us through that blow up?
- [12:41]
Julia Ainsley
Yeah, it was fascinating. So this is early on. So we're talking February 2025, and the numbers are not very high. Trump promised shock and all.
- [12:48]
Yasmin Vesugin
So month into his administration.
- [12:49]
Julia Ainsley
Yeah. And he promised shock and awe. I mean, think about it. As journalists, we were ready. Like what's going to be the city? Where are they going to go? Where are we going to see ICE in the streets? And really not a lot had happened. In fact, the deportations of that first month were lower than they had been under the Biden administration, in part because Biden was turning more people away at the border. Basically, they get for this plan. This is the leaders of ICE and cbp and they have a plan that's been blessed by Secretary Noem. They're at DHS headquarters and it is a master plan for deportations is what it's called. And it instructed Customs and Border Protection, along with the Department of Defense. That's a key piece of this recipe and ICE to form what they were going to call the National Incident Command center in Washington. And they would pick cities across the country where they would send immigration agents to go arrest people with prior orders of deportation. They had 700,000 of them listed with previous known addresses. And that would get them really close to their goal of 1 million deportations a year. All they had to do was go into these last known addresses without a warrant. That was the plan. They wouldn't get a warrant signed by a judge. They'd just get a piece of paper signed by an ICE field office, go in and make the arrest, and put them on a path to fast deportation. This seemed like the easy, no brainer way to get to a million. But Caleb Vitello, who was the first ICE director, he was the ICE director at this time and he had worked with Stephen Miller in the first Trump one. Like he was seen as a Trump loyalist. He raised a question in this meeting about these known addresses. He said, look, I've worked in immigration enforcement my entire career. The last known address somebody lists is often not the place they're currently living. Some of these people could have died. Some of these addresses were listed in the 80s. Some people have moved, obviously. And so you run a really high risk of going into a home of an American citizen and arresting them and putting them on a fast track for deportation. He is not going to put his name on this. On the other side of the table, there are the heads of Customs and Border Protection like Rodney Scott, who's still there. He's still the commissioner, his senior advisor, and also the deputy to Nome at the time. And Rodney Scott got so angry with Caleb Vitello that he's slamming his hands on the.
- [15:02]
Yasmin Vesugin
Because Vitello is saying, I'm not putting my name on this.
- [15:04]
Julia Ainsley
Yeah. And he's saying, this is the way, this is the plan. And the fact that ICE isn't getting on board, that the leader of ICE is obstinate against this. They're furious about this. Rodney Scott's furious about it anyway, they reached such high tensions that their handlers, the people who brought them into the room in Washington, everybody kind of has these people who bring them around from place to place where they need to go. They have to clear the room because it's gotten so tense. But I've spoken to some people about what happened inside. They basically just got so heated that it was clear that they needed to leave this room. And within days, Caleb Attiello was reassigned and he was sent down to Georgia to run ICE training. And then soon they brought in Todd Lyons, who became the ICE director after that. He is also now on his way out. But it was key for me to understand that as a reporter, because like you said, we all thought they were in lockstep. We always thought the headlines in the media were that Caleb Vitello was fired because they couldn't get the number of arrests high enough, that it was just a competency issue. We had no idea there were these major disclos about ideological differences, even among people who were vocally Trump loyalist who had come in, who were part of this mission to get this record high deportation force. And it played out through my reporting. There were a lot of other people I talked to who had some real problems with this, and they paid the price with their career.
- [16:22]
Yasmin Vesugin
How is Homeland Security, ice, cbp, the White House? How have they responded to your reporting on this incident?
- [16:28]
Julia Ainsley
They've actually been incredibly quiet. When I was reporting about this in the book, they just said that they won't talk about internal meetings and discussions. They did not respond to comment. When I wrote an article about it for nbcnews.com earlier this week that laid it out in more detail. I did not get a response from them. And then in general, on the book. Yeah, there are multiple times through the book where I can explain. You know, someone might deny this. This is what this person said. Oftentimes it's from notes taken by people inside meetings.
- [16:58]
Yasmin Vesugin
It's interesting because as we have watched this, these immigration policies be instituted by the Trump administration throughout the last year and a half, almost now, especially after we watch what took place in Minneapolis, for instance, and the killing of Alex Preddy and Renee Nicole Good, we often wondered if there were legal issues to what they were actually carrying out. Right. How they were actually justifying their actions, all of these agencies. And from your reporting, it sounds as if those questions were being asked from inside the administration as well, which, as you know, the media and as people were reviewing it from the outside, didn't necessarily see.
- [17:39]
Julia Ainsley
Yeah, it seemed like they had an army of people ready to take on those fights. But internally, even among their own lawyers, there was dissent. There's a part that I have in the book where I was able to talk to a professor who was training incoming ICE agents on the law. When I interviewed this guy was when ice was really cracking down in D.C. so I was seeing in my own area ice often grabbing people who were on their way making food deliveries. That was really common in D.C. and a lot of cracking car windows. We saw that a lot in Chicago of people who refused to open their door and then they would crash the car window. And so I asked this professor, what does an ICE officer need to have in order to break a car window? Is it treated like a home? What is that like? And he said that they needed a reasonable suspicion that this person had violated immigration law. That's a lower bar than probable cause. They're not trying to establish that. But if they have a reasonable suspicion, that professor was reassigned and taken out of that job that afternoon for telling me that.
- [18:41]
Yasmin Vesugin
How has ICE and DHS responded to that reporting in your book? They haven't. They haven't.
- [18:46]
Julia Ainsley
They have not.
- [18:48]
Yasmin Vesugin
Messaging has also been an issue. It sounds like there have been internal voices questioning some of the language, some of the messaging coming out of ICE and DHS as well.
- [18:56]
Julia Ainsley
Yeah, this is fascinating. There's a woman I spoke to for the book who really had a 30 year career starting in the military, then at DHS, was a press agent. A lot of people don't understand that. There are some people who even work in the press shop who are career. They were not there for any political administration. They can stay throughout. And she was being asked by her bosses in a press release to describe the people who had just been arrested as scumbags. This is kind of language we heard a lot from Kristi Noem. They loved terms like heinous monster scumbags. And these are people who were alleged gang members. And so she said, what if we're wrong? She also met the question a little more broadly, what if we're wrong about the people we're arresting?
- [19:35]
Yasmin Vesugin
Who did she say this to?
- [19:36]
Julia Ainsley
Her bosses who were telling her to put the word scumbags in a press release. And she told me that she believes that's what ended up getting her fired. Because just weeks later, she was given termination papers that said she was being fired for failure to authorize a press release. Now, when I spoke to people at dhs, they said she was fired for failing to do her job. But it's a question of was it her job to include the word scumbags in a press release? And this same person, and I'm grading her anonymity, also raised a question right at the end of my reporting, which really spans 2025 of if we keep going this way, someone's going to get killed. And this is before January 26th, where we saw the shootings of Renee, Nicole Good and Alex Perti. She had a real premonition that she'd seen these things play out career. And she just thought, this is such a scattershot mission. We're surging into these cities. We're coming in just guns ablazing. And she was really worried an ICE officer could get killed, a Border Patrol agent could get killed, an immigrant, an American citizen. And I thought that was a real foreshadowing of what was to come.
- [20:42]
Yasmin Vesugin
Julie Ainsley, the book is Undue the Inside Story of Trump's Mass Deportation Program. It's out now, wherever you get your books.
- [20:50]
Julia Ainsley
Thank you.
- [20:50]
Yasmin Vesugin
Congratulations. All right. We're going to take a very quick break. And when we are back, our chief data analyst, Steve Kornacki breaks down how President Trump's aim to exact revenge in the Indiana primary races played out and what FBI Director Keshe Patel says went wrong in the investigation into Nancy Guthrie's disappearance. That is next in the headlines.
- [21:16]
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This week on MEET THE press. The war with Iran heads into its third month as gas prices spike. Is there any end in sight? Plus, we'll dig into the former FBI director's second indictment and the fallout over another assassination attempt this week on MEET THE press. Listen to the full episode now. Wherever you get your podcasts,
- [21:37]
Craig Melvin
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- [22:41]
Yasmin Vesugin
And we are back with here's the scoop from NBC News. Let's get to some headlines. In Indiana, five challengers backed by President Trump. Trump successfully unseated incumbent Republicans who had failed to support Trump's 2025 redistricting push. Our chief data analyst Steve Kornacki says the results show the president's continued influence despite a plunging approval rating amid the Iran war and rising gas prices.
- [23:06]
Willie Geist
There had been a lot of buzz, a lot of speculation in the media before this Indiana primary that maybe President Trump's standing with Republicans was starting to get shaky, that Republican leaders might be starting to feel more freedom to break from him, that Republican voters might be willing to give those Republican leaders more leeway and more latitude to do that. This, of course, with the president's overall approval rating dropping in the last several months, well, the message from Republican primary voters in Indiana couldn't be more resounding. The party's voters are still with Trump. And I think clearly the party's leaders are going to be listening to that message coming out of Indiana on Tuesday night.
- [23:43]
Yasmin Vesugin
Meanwhile, in Michigan, Democrat Shedrick Greene won a special state Senate election, ensuring his party will keep control of the closely divided chamber. Democrats also control the governorship of Michigan. Republicans, though in the battleground state, have the edge. In the state's House, President Trump seems to be teasing an agreement to end the US And Israel's war with Iran. He said in a true social post that if Iran agrees to give, quote, what has been agreed to, the war would end. It is unclear what he meant by what has been agreed to. Trump's comments come just a day after he said he was pausing Project Freedom, the US Effort to guide commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, citing progress towards an agreement. A spokesperson for Iran's foreign ministry told state media that a US Proposal was currently under review and that Iran planned to convey its assessment to Pakistan, which has been mediating the conflict. FBI Director Kash Patel is criticizing authorities in Arizona for their handling of the Nancy Guthrie case. Patel told Fox News host Sean Hannity on a podcast that the Pima County Sheriff's Office kept the FBI out of the investigation for four days immediately following Guthrie's disappearance. Sheriff Chris Nanos disputed the comments, saying a member of the FBI task force was present and working alongside local law enforcement when he initially responded to the scene on February 1. Patel himself told Fox News on February 3 that the FBI was working closely with local authorities. Nancy Guthrie is the mom of Today show co anchor Savannah Guthrie. No suspects or persons of interest have been publicly named in her disappearance. Ted Turner, the media tycoon, entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded CNN and revolutionized cable television, has died. Turner helped transform Turner Broadcasting System into a behemoth, launching channels like tbs, TNT and Turner Classic Movies. But arguably his largest impact on politics and on culture was through CNN, the first ever 24 hour news channel. CNN fundamentally changed the format and speed of television news and laid the groundwork for competitors like Fox News and what is now known as Ms. Now Turner was 87 years old. And finally, everyone knows someone who claims that that one trip on magic mushrooms like totally changed their life. So now science might be catching up to that guy. A small study suggests that a single psychedelic trip can cause physical changes in the brain. The research focused on psilocybin, the compound found in magic mushrooms, which has been shown to help alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety. But it is not clear how it achieves those effects. For a long time, scientists have been split into two camps, those who think that the compounds are the key ingredient to psychological benefits, and those who think the psychedelic experience is more important. This new study suggests that the second camp might actually be on the right track. The stronger the experience, the bigger the therapeutic response. In other words, packing your bags is not enough. You got to go on the trip. You got to go on the ride. Even if the ride is long, windy and kind of crazy. That is going to do it for us at here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasim Desugin. We'll be back tomorrow with whatever the day may bring. And if you like what you heard, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And you can also subscribe to our daily newsletter, the Inside Scoop. It is a deeper dive on the main stories of the day that comes out every weeknight straight to your inbox. You can sign up for the Inside Scoop as part of our paid subscription@nbcnews.com we'll see you tomorrow.
- [27:39]
Craig Melvin
I'm Craig Melvin. Cheers.
- [27:41]
Peter Nicholas
Cheers.
- [27:41]
Julia Ainsley
Cheers.
- [27:42]
Craig Melvin
I've always been a glass half full kind of guy, and now I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way, too. Some really fascinating folks who shared their defining moments, their triumphs, their challenges. Their stories are funny and quite candid. So I hope you'll join me each week. And who knows, you might just come away with your own Glass Half full.
- [28:03]
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