COLUMBUS — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche vowed Thursday that the Department of Justice will use every tool at its disposal to help build President Trump’s new ballroom at the White House — despite being dealt setbacks from Congress and the courts.
“We’re going to continue to do — we, meaning the Department of Justice — will continue to do everything we can to get that ballroom built,” Blanche told The Post in an exclusive interview.
“And that’s working through the courts and appealing where we need to and trying to get the judges to understand why this is extraordinarily important for the government and for this country,” he said.
The Post accompanied Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel to a news conference in Ohio where charges were announced against nine defendants accused of bilking US taxpayer-funded programs — including Medicaid scammers who allegedly took $30 million away from kids’ behavioral health services to splurge on luxury cars.
The fraud bust is one of several the DOJ and FBI have been unveiling in coordination with a White House anti-fraud task force.
Additionally, Blanche and Patel have hosted news conferences announcing charges against high-profile individuals and entities — including the accused White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter who prompted the call for further funding for the president’s security.
The incident, which rattled cabinet officials and others in attendance, prompted Blanche to pen a letter urging an end to a lawsuit that had for a time delayed the ballroom’s construction at the White House.
“The president says repeatedly — as recently as yesterday — at least twice that the money for the ballroom was funded already and the fact that Congress offered to fund it through a reconciliation,” he said.
“The issue with the ballroom is not funding, and President Trump has said over and over again why we need it. He’s totally right.”
In April, a federal appeals court had allowed the $400 million ballroom project to continue after a lawsuit halted it.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit authorized by Congress to help preserve historic sites, had argued that demolition of the White House’s East Wing to make room for the ballroom’s construction had proceeded “without any review whatsoever.”
The Senate, however, scrapped a provision that would fund $1 billion in security upgrades to the 90,000-square-foot structure — an item that had previously been tucked into a bill intended to pass by a simple majority through a process known as budget reconciliation.
Half a dozen Republican senators on Thursday also voted in favor of forcing the Trump administration to give Congress authority over the project.
Trump had been demanding the upgrades following the 2026 WHCD shooting.
