Washington Post: Trump clashed with architect over White House ballroom safety codes, leading to resignation

Trump Clashed with Ballroom Architect Over Safety Issues Until He Quit

President Trump refused to adhere to building safety codes for his White House ballroom and fought with its original architect until the architect resigned, according to a new report.

The Washington Post reported, citing anonymous sources, that James McCrery II withdrew from the project in October after repeatedly warning that Trump's desired ballroom lacked adequate emergency exit routes and fire containment measures. The president reportedly dismissed McCrery's concerns, stating that building codes did not apply to anything built at the White House.

"I am the code," Trump said.

Trump has directed much of his time and attention to the ballroom. The Post obtained documents, including early ballroom designs bearing black Sharpie markings in the president's handwriting. The reporting indicates that Trump is bypassing or overruling federal agencies that typically handle White House construction and renovations—agencies legally required to follow national building safety standards to the "maximum extent feasible" except for national security reasons.

Trump's White House construction projects are being routed through the Executive Residence, which is not a federal agency and is not subject to federal rules. Buildings on federal property fall outside District of Columbia jurisdiction, meaning they are not subject to local building codes. Responsibility falls on the contractors hired to design and build them, and Trump currently has them working almost around the clock to meet his deadlines.

After McCrery resigned, the White House continued discussing safety concerns about the ballroom's design for months afterward, according to the Post. It remains unclear whether more recent designs from the architecture firm that took over the project, Shalom Baranes Associates, addressed those concerns.

Trump has been wholly focused on the expensive ballroom, reneging on promises that it would be financed entirely by private donations and invoking national security justifications that have been debunked. If he is overruling safety codes, he is actually risking national security.

Editor's Pick: Zelenskiy Tries Not to Roll His Eyes as Trump Rants About Ballroom

RFK Jr. Redirected $12 Million from Minority Health Office to Personal Security

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. redirected millions of dollars from the Office of Minority Health to bolster his own personal security.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Kennedy moved $12 million from the office, which was created by Republican President Ronald Reagan to address higher Black infant mortality rates. HHS informed Congress earlier this year that it would use the funds to cover RFK Jr.'s security costs, which grew from $10 million in 2025 to $17 million in 2026, according to the Journal's sources.

In response, HHS spokeswoman Emily Hilliard said the cuts "reflect HHS priorities and programmatic assessments—not the Secretary's security needs."

"Secretary Kennedy faces a security environment that differs significantly from that of previous HHS secretaries," Hilliard added. "His protection reflects the threats he faces, his extensive travel, and the security required for him to safely carry out his duties nationwide."

When he first started, Kennedy Jr. requested protection from the U.S. Marshals Service rather than the security provided by the Office of the Inspector General. Kennedy stopped speaking at outdoor events after a man wearing a bike helmet rushed at him last year.

Editor's Pick: Measles Scare Hits Children's Hospital as RFK Jr. Does Nothing

Stephen Miller Blames Potential Midterm Losses on Senate Leader, Not Trump

Donald Trump told Republicans to vote as if he were on the November ballot. But Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, is distancing the party from that directive as Republicans head toward a potentially brutal November upset.

"If the Republicans lose the midterms it'll be because [Senate Majority Leader] John Thune didn't get the SAVE America Act passed," Miller wrote on X Tuesday, adding that the predicted loss "rests solely on John Thune's shoulders."

The SAVE America Act originally proposed numerous amendments to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, chief among them a requirement that voters bring either a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. Critics argued the mandate would unduly restrict millions of Americans from voting, noting that half of the country's population lacks a passport and that the legislation would make it difficult for anyone who changed their name—including married women—to register at all.

The White House heralded the voter restriction bill as critical to ensuring election integrity and voter security. Trump went so far as to predicate his support for other legislative efforts on the SAVE Act's passage, insisting it should be Congress's top priority.

The initiative stalled over the summer when, after many failed attempts to pass the bill on its own, House Republicans tied it to the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. That has stalled the typically uncontroversial defense bill in the upper chamber. The SAVE America Act is now one of 650 bills awaiting Senate action.

Meanwhile, Republicans are expecting significant losses during the midterms. Attention has shifted toward Alaska and Ohio—historically reliable red states—and away from purple regions such as North Carolina, which Politico reported has been perceived as a "money sink for Dems."

Read more about the midterms: Trump's Approval Rating Tanks Further Just Weeks Ahead of Midterms

Trump Personally Made Tens of Millions from AI Stock Trading

President Donald Trump is personally making tens of millions of dollars from the AI industry.

In financial disclosures filed Tuesday, Trump revealed he made a total of 1,156 securities transactions in July, CNBC reported. The president purchased at least $43.6 million worth of shares and sold at least $35.6 million.

The largest transactions were sales of Microsoft and Amazon shares on July 20, totaling between $5 million and $25 million each. A few days later, Trump reported buying between $100,001 and $250,000 of Microsoft and between $1,001 and $15,000 of Amazon.

The timing is particularly concerning given that Trump has emerged as a champion for artificial intelligence and data centers—an industry in which Microsoft and Amazon have invested billions of dollars. At the same time, these companies are paying directly into the president's pockets for his various vanity projects.

Also concerning: The filing revealed that Trump sold between $250,001 and $500,000 of Northrop Grumman, an aerospace and defense company, on the same day he signed an executive order tightening supply chain requirements for defense contractors.

Trump's trades totaled between $79 million and $270 million—up slightly from June, when he traded shares worth between $78.1 million and $263.1 million. Trump has long maintained that trading is done by independent advisers on his behalf and that his portfolio is managed without his input.

The president's 2025 financial disclosure showed he made more than $2 billion during his first year back in the White House, thanks to cryptocurrency, foreign real estate, stock trading, and more. In 2025, Trump bought or sold stocks 21,000 times with companies he talks about publicly, but his initial self-reporting showed only 800 transactions—far less than what he actually did.

Read more about Trump's finances: Trump Financial Disclosures Reveal He and Musk Are Best Friends Again

Zelenskiy Struggles to Hide Frustration as Trump Raves About Ballroom at UN

President Trump couldn't stop raving about his planned White House ballroom while taking questions from reporters alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy Tuesday at the United Nations.

Trump was bragging that "one of the papers reporting" that Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to the White House later this week was "the hottest ticket that they've seen in a long time."

"Almost as hot as when Zelenskiy comes into town," Trump said to laughs. Zelenskiy quipped, "I'm glad," as Trump chuckled and playfully patted the Ukrainian president's knee.

Trump lamented that his White House ballroom was not yet ready, otherwise he could have hosted 2,000 people for the occasion. When a reporter asked if Trump would bring Zelenskiy to the ballroom for a future visit, Trump replied, "Well, we might have that, yes.… It's under budget and ahead of schedule."

Throughout the exchange, Zelenskiy struggled not to roll his eyes or look annoyed. The reaction is understandable: the Ukrainian leader is leading a war against Russia's invasion of his country and needs Trump's support. However, Trump appeared more concerned about his own vanity projects, focusing much of his time and speeches on his ballroom and other unnecessary construction in Washington, D.C.

Observers have noted this as a sign of Trump's cognitive decline, as he becomes increasingly "obsessed with things that reflect glory on him," according to Dr. John Gartner, a former assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School.