Trump's ballroom just shrank. But the investigation of it will be huge.

Donors to Trump's ballroom have won $50 billion in federal contracts. They should prepare themselves for federal corruption probes. PLUS — top stories and what you missed.

Even if Trump’s ballroom project dies, it won’t go away completely. That’s because the investigation into the ballroom will be massive.

Congress just denied Donald Trump the billion dollars he wanted to help build his “huge” new White House ballroom, and the gilded vanity project could be headed for the chopping block, depending on what an appeals court says. But a new watchdog report makes clear that there will, one day, be a sweeping federal bribery probe into how it all came about.

There’s an old truth that my prosecutor friends know but that business executives always seem to forget. The people who end up in handcuffs after corruption probes aren’t just the officials who solicit bribes. They’re the people who pay the bribes, too.

I’ve been saying for months that the government-affairs staff at every company that wrote a check for Donald Trump’s vanity ballroom should be losing sleep. This week, a new Public Citizen report called Ballroom Billions explained why. Of the 27 publicly known corporate donors who bankrolled the $400 million demolition of the East Wing, 14 have hauled in more than $50 billion in new or increased federal contracts since they paid up. And 16 of them are sitting on federal enforcement actions that have been conveniently softened, paused, or made to disappear.

As Public Citizen’s Jon Golinger put it, these firms didn’t donate to Trump’s ballroom project “out of the goodness of their hearts.” Many of them were obviously buying access. And then incredibly and arrogantly, the White House tried to pass the bill to the rest of us. That’ll turn out to be a fatal error. Because the funding bait-and-switch has drawn even more scrutiny toward the project — the kind that could eventually get people charged with crimes.

The White House calls this a “fake” conflict of interest. But you can almost hear the panic under their voices. It’s not fake. It’s so brazen it should be illegal, and in many cases, future federal prosecutors might discover that it was. What we’ve seen these recent months is the open-air conversion of the President’s House into a pay-to-play ballroom. The price of admission is (evidently) a cash transfer to Trump’s vanity project, the reward might be a federal contract, and the loser is the U.S. taxpayer.

Whatever shadow deals might’ve been done to make all of this happen, I can promise they won’t stay secret forever. Although the administration negotiated a covert funding agreement to let donors hide themselves, they were sloppy and stupid. Public Citizen pried it loose through a simple FOIA lawsuit, and more disclosures will surely follow. Administrations come to an end. Statutes of limitations do not run out as fast as a news cycle.

And then there are the internal emails, the Slack threads, and the memos inside some of those companies, wherein some vice president of government affairs stupidly wrote down *why* the company decided to fund a dictator’s dance hall. Those will be subpoenaed. I can already see the image of U.S. senators reading them back to those people in Congressional hearings. Corporate executives will be asked, under oath, what they expected in return for their “donations”… and what they got.

The ballroom may not be so huge. But the reckoning will be.

Your friend, in defiance,

Miles Taylor
P.S. Help spread the defiance by sharing this post.

THE DEFIANCE WATCHLIST

We are tracking these stories today.

1. COURT RULING OFFICIALLY PLANS TO SCRUB TRUMP’S STAIN OFF THE KENNEDY CENTER. Trump’s egotistical decision to graffiti his name onto Kennedy Center back in 2025 has officially been reversed, and lawyers at the Kennedy Center are now scrambling to comply. That removal is scheduled for no later than June 12th. And according to a report yesterday, staff have been directed to take Trump’s name off more than just the building. “This includes email signatures, email communications, letterhead, website, brochures, promotional materials, press releases, signs, references in contracts, MOUs, and other agreements, and every other reference to the ‘Trump Kennedy Center,’ the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, or similar name,” according to an internal email obtained by The Atlantic.

2. TRUMP MAY COME TO REGRET HIS LAWSUIT AGAINST THE BBC. After suing BBC for $10 billion dollars in 2025 for “defamation” (by stitching together damning clips of Trump exhorting his insurrectionist followers on January 6, 2021), Trump’s legal team was asked to hand over financial information to defend the outrageous lawsuit. That’s apparently information Trump’s legal team is NOT eager to share. They’ve responded in a filing that they don’t want to make those records available… and we have a sneaking suspicion the court won’t be thrilled. This is what happens when you bring controversial lawsuits. You open yourself up to exposure.

3. SENATE DIGS THE GRAVE FOR TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA ACT. Trump’s plan for sweeping voter suppression via the so-called “SAVE” America Act, has officially failed in the Senate. If passed, the legislation would have required voters to show a document proving their U.S. citizenship, and made it difficult for millions of ordinary Americans — including married women who’ve changed their last names — to exercise their democratic rights. Election watchers are now bracing for Trump to turn his attention from changing the laws to manipulate the election to breaking the laws. Too bad for him, an army of state prosecutors are ready to sue.

4. BONUS — ACT OF DEFIANCE — 18 HOUSE REPUBLICANS TURN THEIR BACKS ON TRUMP’S AGENDA WITH UKRAINE. As we’ve been saying, Congressional Republicans have not yet exactly become “the resistance” to Trump. But they sure are becoming “the reluctance.” And that includes on Ukraine, where the White House has tried to loosen America’s support in favor of Trump’s dictator buddy Vladimir Putin in Russia. Yet this week, 18 House Republicans supported a Democrat-drafted bill to ramp up military aid to Ukraine after Trump viciously opposed the measure. The security package would reaffirm U.S. support for Ukraine and NATO, authorize more than $1.5 billion in new security assistance and $8 billion in direct loans.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT — A WEEK OF DEFIANCE

Here were our shows and articles this week!

• Donald Trump’s crime spree is starting to go very badly. This past week has shown that defiance not only makes a difference; it may be what saves our democracy.

• “What would Scott Pelley do?” That’s the question all reporters should be asking. The 60 Minutes veteran got himself fired for standing up against the hostile takeover of his show and the wider assault on the First Amendment.

• Donald Trump just tripled the size of his personal army inside government. It was illegal. The White House quietly issued an order turning 8,000 top “civil service” jobs into roles that serve at the pleasure of the president.

• You can find this week’s DEFIANCE Daily episodes HERE, including the most recent one, below.

WHAT’S COMING UP

• THIS AFTERNOON — WEEKLY COFFEE — Come one, come all! But only Members can ask questions. Join us on Substack or at DEFIANCE.News every Friday at 2p ET. Replays available afterwards.

• THIS EVENING (ET) — DEFIANCE DAILY — Tonight we welcome renowned podcaster and commentator Jennifer Welch! Fridays are lit on DEFIANCE Daily. Don’t miss it. Every weeknight @ 5pm ET, you can watch our hour-long podcast LIVE on our DEFIANCE.News page, YouTube, or X — and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our latest episode is below!

• NEXT WEDS — WEEKLY MISSION BRIEFING — This is the “beating heart of DEFIANCE.org.” Every Wednesday @ 5pm ET we do a special episode of DEFIANCE Daily and announce real actions to combat Trump’s corruption. So tune in. Replays available afterwards.

• ADD US TO YOUR CALENDAR — You can access the DEFIANCE.org Google Calendar here. That way, you’ll never miss a meeting, event, or broadcast.

ONE MORE THING

Forward this email to someone who should join the defiance. We are growing the club. I won’t let a wannabe dictator destroy the country I spent my career protecting. That’s why I launched DEFIANCE.org — a club for courageous Americans asking, “WHAT CAN I DO?” Each week, we defy Trump by taking real action to thwart his abuses of power. Become a Member today at DEFIANCE.org/join or here on Substack. 100% of proceeds go to the pro-democracy fight. Or sign up for occasional updates for free below. We publish breaking news and analysis at DEFIANCE.News.