{"id":118778,"date":"2026-01-23T16:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T21:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/?post_type=news&p=118778"},"modified":"2026-01-23T16:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T21:02:18","slug":"federal-judge-seems-skeptical-of-trumps-ballroom-compares-the-projects-corporate-funded-scheme-to-a-rube-goldberg-contraption","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/federal-judge-seems-skeptical-of-trumps-ballroom-compares-the-projects-corporate-funded-scheme-to-a-rube-goldberg-contraption\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judge seems Skeptical of Trump\u2019s Ballroom, Compares the Project\u2019s Corporate-Funded Scheme to a \u201cRube Goldberg Contraption\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C. — At a hearing\u00a0Thursday\u00a0on the White House Ballroom Project, a federal judge appeared deeply skeptical of the legality of Trump\u2019s circuitous scheme to fund it without congressional oversight, comparing it several times to a\u00a0<\/span>\u201cRube Goldberg Contraption.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Trump has been collecting hundreds of millions of dollars from corporations and billionaires for the ballroom project through a\u00a0<\/span>tax-exempt charity<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and two government agencies.\u00a0 A Public Citizen\u00a0<\/span>report<\/span><\/a>\u00a0found that over two dozen corporate donors backing the ballroom project\u00a0benefited\u00a0from\u00a0nearly\u00a0$43 billion\u00a0in contracts last year and\u00a0$279 billion\u00a0over the last five years, raising major concerns about corruption and pay-to-play.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u202fresponse, Public\u202fCitizen Democracy Advocate Jon Golinger\u202f<\/span><\/b>said,\u202f\u201cTrump seems to hope\u00a0that\u00a0funding the White House Ballroom project like a\u00a0Rube Goldberg Contraption was a clever way to\u00a0evade scrutiny\u00a0but\u00a0now that it\u2019s under the\u00a0spotlight\u00a0his\u00a0shady\u00a0corrupt\u00a0scheme is starting to\u00a0crumble.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After\u00a0Thursday\u2019s\u00a0hearing, the judge\u00a0indicated\u00a0he would\u00a0likely\u00a0issue\u00a0a ruling in the\u00a0ballroom\u00a0<\/span>lawsuit<\/span><\/a>\u00a0brought by a preservation\u00a0organization\u00a0<\/span>sometime in February<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-118778","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","tax_topic-money-in-politics","tax_topic-protecting-democracy","tax_case_topic-campaign-finance-elections","tax_news-press"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFederal Judge seems Skeptical of Trump\u2019s Ballroom, Compares the Project\u2019s Corporate-Funded Scheme to a \u201cRube Goldberg Contraption\u201d - Public Citizen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/federal-judge-seems-skeptical-of-trumps-ballroom-compares-the-projects-corporate-funded-scheme-to-a-rube-goldberg-contraption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Federal Judge seems Skeptical of Trump\u2019s Ballroom, Compares the Project\u2019s Corporate-Funded Scheme to a \u201cRube Goldberg Contraption\u201d - 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