Schrödinger’s White House Ballroom

From the U.S. National Park Service’s court filing before the Supreme Court in defense of the continuing construction of the White House ballroom:

The structure extends five stories deep into the ground, and is built with hardened concrete, steel, and rebar; protective missile-resistant columns, roofs, and beams; droneproof ceilings and roofs; and bullet, ballistic, and blast-proof glass. The Project includes bomb shelters, state-of-the-art hospital and medical facilities, protective partitioning between all areas of the building, top secret military structures and equipment, military-grade venting, a single integrated air conditioning and heating system, sniper nests, and a drone port on top, elevated by the structure of the ballroom, to protect the White House and surrounding region from aerial attacks—“one of the nation’s largest emerging threats.” The Project is on time and under budget, and the ballroom is funded with approximately $400 million in private donations by President Donald J. Trump and “some of the most prominent and successful corporations and people in America”—zero taxpayer dollars are needed or required.

If the structures serve a legitimate national security purpose — and “bomb shelters,” “state-of-the-art hospital and medical facilities,” “top secret military structures and equipment” sure sound like legitimate national security purposes — then they should be paid for by the U.S. taxpayers. We don’t privately finance the U.S. Secret Service or “the Beast” armored limousine, or any other structures designed to protect the president, his family, or other government officials.

But that runs afoul of the president’s frequently repeated assertion, now in a court filing, that “zero taxpayer dollars are needed or required.”

Back in June, the Office of Management and Budget transferred $385 million to the U.S. Secret Service for “Procurement, Construction and Improvements” and another $11 million into the Secret Service’s “Operations and Support” account. Democratic senators argue that this represents a violation of the president’s repeated pledge that “zero taxpayer dollars are needed or required.”

Technically, the Democratic senators are right. But it’s also ridiculous to expect a White House roof sniper nest to have a “brought to you by Booz Allen Hamilton” plaque or for the drone port to say, “Sponsored by Comcast.” We might as well have Secret Service agents wear corporate decals on their suits the way NASCAR drivers do.

It would be easier if the administration could just come out and say that the ballroom cannot be completed entirely with private donations and that certain parts of the structure, relating to security, must be built with taxpayer funds. But that contradicts the president’s pledges, so it has become Schrödinger’s ballroom. It’s simultaneously entirely privately funded and requires additional money from the Secret Service’s procurement, construction, and improvements budget.