The Senate parliamentarian rejected the last item in the Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill — $1 billion in White House and Secret Service security funding tied in part to President Donald Trump’s planned ballroom

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, considered nonpartisan since taking the role in 2012 during former President Barack Obama’s administration, ruled the funding provision could not be included as written under budget reconciliation rules, an outcome long expected from both sides of the aisle.

Ryan Wrasse, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a social media post that Republicans would keep trying to revise the legislation to try to gain the parliamentarian’s approval.

«Redraft. Refine. Resubmit,» Wrasse wrote on X. «None of this is abnormal during a Byrd process.»

FURY ERUPTS AS UNELECTED SENATE ‘SCOREKEEPER’ BLOCKS TRUMP’S AGENDA

The decision deals a blow to efforts to pass the money with a simple majority as part of a broader roughly $72 billion package focused largely on immigration enforcement after Democrats forced those budgetary items under the longest shutdowns in American history.

MacDonough ruled that the security funding provision falls under chamber rules that require 60 votes to pass most legislation, according to the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., the Senate Budget Committee ranking member.

«While we expect Republicans to change this bill to appease Trump, Democrats are prepared to challenge any change to this bill,» Merkley said.

REPUBLICANS EYE PICKING UP $400M TAB FOR TRUMP’S BALLROOM AS SOME DEMS OPEN TO ‘DISCUSS’ IDEA

The parliamentarian interprets Senate rules, including whether legislative provisions are permitted. While MacDonough is nonpartisan by Senate standards, she served as former Vice President Al Gore’s advisor in the Bush v. Gore 2000 election challenge that was resolved in the Supreme Court.

Her ruling came days after several Senate Republicans questioned the Trump administration’s $1 billion request, with some saying they needed far more detail before backing taxpayer funding connected to a project Trump has said would be privately financed.

«It was one thing when private dollars were building it,» Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, told Fox News Digital before a closed-door briefing with Secret Service Director Sean Curran. «If you’re asking me for a billion dollars, I have some really hard questions.»

TRUMP CLAIMS DONOR FUNDED WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM INCLUDES HIDDEN BUILD BELOW WITH SECURITY FOCUS

President Donald Trump holds rendering of the White House ballroom in an Air Force One media scrum. (Mandel Ngan/AFP)

Curtis added that if an employee brought him a billion-dollar project with little explanation, he would respond: «You made that number up.»

The request included $220 million for «White House complex hardening,» including above- and below-ground security enhancements for the ballroom, according to a one-page breakdown obtained by Fox News Digital. Those upgrades included bulletproof glass, drone detection technology, chemical filtration and detection systems and other national security measures.

Another $180 million was proposed for a White House visitor screening center, while $600 million would go toward Secret Service training, protection for Trump and other officials, counter-drone measures and other security needs after Trump dodged an unprecedented third assassination attempt last month.

TRUMP’S TROUBLING WEEK: DEMANDING GOVERNMENT MONEY, DEMOLISHING THE EAST WING

Republicans defending the request have argued Democrats and critics are mischaracterizing the funding as a direct ballroom subsidy.

«What was clear today is this whole statement, ‘It’s a billion dollars for a ballroom.’ Anyone who prints that is printing something they know is a lie,» Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital. «It’s not a billion dollars for the ballroom.»

Still, other Republicans said the administration had not fully explained how it arrived at the number. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., said officials needed to provide «more details about exactly how they arrived at the figure,» while Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said the administration would have to explain to taxpayers what return they would get for the spending.

SCHUMER, DEMOCRATS PLOT COORDINATED RESISTANCE TO TRUMP’S ‘ONE UGLY BILL’

The White House and GOP supporters have framed the funding as a national security matter, citing threats against Trump and the need to modernize protective infrastructure at the White House. The administration has said the ballroom would reduce reliance on temporary outdoor structures for large events while improving security for the president, his family and visitors.

The ballroom project has faced opposition since Trump ordered the demolition of the White House’s East Wing last year to make way for the new facility. The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued, arguing the administration lacked authority to tear down the historic structure or build a major new facility without explicit congressional approval. A federal appeals court in April allowed construction to continue while the legal fight proceeds.

Trump has said the ballroom itself would be funded by $400 million in private donations and completed around September 2028, near the end of his second term. The parliamentarian’s ruling does not end the broader spending bill, but it complicates GOP efforts to keep the White House security money in a package Republicans hope to pass along party lines.

APPEALS COURT LETS TRUMP RESUME WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM CONSTRUCTION, SEEKS LOWER COURT CLARITY

Democrats have cast the project as excessive and politically tone-deaf, arguing Republicans are trying to steer taxpayer money toward Trump’s signature construction project while Americans face rising costs.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the ballroom «a disgrace» and said Republicans should reject the funding.

«The bottom line is, this ballroom is a disgrace,» he said. «The Republicans know it. Let’s see if they have the guts to do what they know is right, both substantively and politically, and tell Trump we don’t need a God — we don’t need a damn ballroom.»

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Notably, the ballroom would not be finished until 2028, the last year of Trump’s second, and last, presidential term by constitutional law. Trump argues it would serve Democrat and Republican administrations equally.

Fox News’ Alex Miller and Reuters contributed to this report.

Emergencia por el ébola

Una enfermedad altamente contagiosa

Un paciente es trasladado en una camilla improvisada en el Congo. Foto: Reuters

La migración complica el rastreo de casos

Cuatro tratamientos bajo consideración

This is part two of a series examining the challenges confronting the NATO alliance.

POLAND-BELARUS BORDER — Riding in a military convoy escorted by armored vehicles from Poland’s 18th «Iron Division» along the country’s 521-kilometer border with Belarus, soldiers pointed toward dense forests where they say Europe’s newest form of warfare is unfolding.

Polish officials warn illegal migrants weaponized by Russia and Belarus to destabilize NATO’s eastern flank are also making their way to the United States — part of what Warsaw calls an ongoing war against the Western alliance that has direct implications for American security.

The border was once guarded mainly by Poland’s Border Guard and police. But after years of mounting pressure from illegal crossings, Polish officials say the army was deployed because the situation became too large and too dangerous to handle as a conventional immigration challenge.

TROOPS AT THE BORDER: HOW THE MILITARY’S ROLE IN IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT HAS EXPLODED UNDER TRUMP

Now, the frontier is guarded in layers: soldiers, border guards and rapid-response forces. A temporary barrier built in 2021 has become an electronic fence backed by surveillance systems and military patrols. Polish officials say migrants trying to cross have come from countries including Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan and India.

They describe the crisis as «artificial migration,» saying the illegals are flown into Belarus from the Middle East, Africa and Asia and then transported toward the Polish border by Belarusian authorities in an effort to pressure and destabilize NATO countries.

Military officials at the border said the peak was in 2021, when there were 39,697 illegal crossing attempts. By 2025, it was 29,869, slightly fewer than in 2024. So far in 2026, they have seen a major drop, they say.

For Warsaw, the numbers tell only part of the story.

Polish officials say the border pressure is not spontaneous illegal migration, but a Russian-backed Belarusian operation designed to destabilize NATO from within.

«We are at war,» Ambassador Krzysztof Olendzki of Poland’s Foreign Ministry told Fox News Digital after the border visit.

«Not only Poland, but also all the countries of the eastern flank of NATO, we are in war,» Olendzki said. «We cannot see it as a classical war with soldiers, with tanks and so on, but the war is exercised by our adversaries, by Belarus and Russia, who are using practically migrants as an asymmetric weapon against NATO countries.»

WHITE HOUSE ROADMAP SAYS EUROPE MAY BE ‘UNRECOGNIZABLE’ IN 20 YEARS AS MIGRATION RAISES DOUBTS ABOUT US ALLIES

File photo shows mostly male illegal migrants waiting at the closed area prepared by the Belarusian government within the border region after they cleared camps at the Poland-Belarus border, on Nov. 18, 2021, in Grodno region, Belarus.  (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The crisis dates back to 2021, when Poland, Lithuania and Latvia accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime of encouraging migrants from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere to travel to Belarus and cross illegally into the European Union. Belarus has denied orchestrating the flows, but Poland and the EU have described the campaign as hybrid warfare.

Olendzki said the goal is not only to push people across the border, but to create chaos inside Western societies.

The border visit underscored how far Poland has gone to harden what it views as one of NATO’s most vulnerable frontiers.

Capt. Angelika Korkosz of Poland’s 18th Division described the day-to-day strain on soldiers stationed there.

«Many times soldiers were faced with aggression from illegal groups of immigrants, and they have to act appropriately and calmly in accordance with the law and procedures while protecting themselves,» Korkosz told Fox News Digital.

POLISH GOVERNMENT PLANS MANDATORY MILITARY TRAINING FOR ADULT MEN

A Polish soldier stands watch near the Belarus border, where officials say migration pressure has evolved into a form of hybrid warfare targeting NATO’s eastern flank on May 16, 2026.

Polish officials said migrants have used Molotov cocktails in at least two incidents, sparking fires near the border. Soldiers also spoke of a Polish serviceman who died after being stabbed by an illegal migrant at the frontier.

Korkosz said the challenge is not only violence, but exhaustion.

«A few months ago, we had minus-20-degree winters, so 12-hour duty during these conditions is really demanding,» she said. «Many soldiers are here for a long time, and it is getting more and more difficult, this long separation from their relatives.»

Still, she said the troops are prepared.

«The training includes decision-making under pressure in an ambiguous operational environment,» Korkosz said. «That’s why when we are here at the border, we are really well-prepared for performing our duties.»

Poland says the border defenses are working. Amb. Olendzki said the lower number of crossings this year reflects the physical barrier, the increased effectiveness of the Border Guard and the military presence. But he warned the threat has not disappeared, only shifted.

NATO WARNS RUSSIA AFTER POLAND SHOOTS DOWN ‘HUGE NUMBER’ OF DRONES THAT VIOLATED ITS AIRSPACE

Soldiers from Poland’s 18th Division demonstrate battlefield medical training near the Belarus border after a serviceman from the division was killed in an attack by an illegal migrant. May 16th, 2026. (Efrat Lachter/Fox News)

«Seeing the fact that the Polish-Belarusian border is quite well guarded, our adversaries are just pushing migrants through the borders of our neighboring countries,» he said. «So it hasn’t ended, but it’s changed the direction. The threat still exists, and we must be vigilant.»

That matters to NATO because Poland’s border with Belarus is not only Warsaw’s border. It is also the eastern edge of the European Union and NATO territory.

Belarus is Russia’s closest ally and allowed its territory to be used for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Russia may be trying to pull Belarus deeper into the war and could use Belarusian territory to threaten Ukraine or even a NATO country.

That fear is central to Poland’s security posture.

During a meeting with reporters in Warsaw, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski told Fox News Digital Russia’s war against Ukraine is, for Poland, «a matter of national safety and existence.»

But Sikorski said the threat to NATO countries is already wider than the battlefield in Ukraine.

«We had on NATO countries’ territories assassinations, numerous drone attacks on airports, on critical infrastructure,» Sikorski said. «We had very serious cyberattacks.»

Polish soldiers stand watch near the Belarus border, where officials say migration pressure has evolved into a form of hybrid warfare targeting NATO’s eastern flank. May 16th, 2026. (Efrat Lachter/Fox News Digital)

Sikorski said Poland faced a Russian-instigated cyberattack last December on critical energy infrastructure that Warsaw believes was intended «to black out part of Poland.»

The warning fits a broader pattern of concerns across NATO’s eastern flank. The Associated Press reported earlier this year that balloons from Belarus had crossed into Polish airspace for a third consecutive night, with Polish forces describing the incidents as attempts to test air defense responses.

For Poland, illegal migration, cyberattacks, drones, sabotage and disinformation are not separate problems. They are different pieces of one Russian and Belarusian pressure campaign against NATO.

Olendzki said Poland’s role is to stop the pressure before it moves deeper into Europe or beyond.

«Standing on guard on the eastern flank of NATO, we are providing security not only to Poland, to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, but to entire NATO, also to the United States,» he said.

US Border Patrol agents prepare to transport migrants for asylum claim processing at the US-Mexico border in Campo, California, US, on Friday, April 5, 2024. Last week a federal judge sharply questioned the Biden administration’s position that it bears no responsibility for housing and feeding migrant children while they wait in makeshift camps along the US-Mexico border, reported the AP.  (Mark Abramson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

That U.S. connection is a central part of Poland’s message to Washington: The eastern flank is not a distant European problem, but a front line in a broader confrontation with Russia and its allies.

Poland now spends nearly 5% of its GDP on defense, the highest rate in NATO, if based on GPD. Sikorski said Warsaw has long taken defense spending seriously.

«We never went below 2% defense spending,» Sikorski said. «Now we are spending almost 5%. This is real military spending.»

He said the eastern flank has become more influential inside NATO because countries closest to Russia were proven right.

US ALLIES ACCUSE RUSSIA OF ‘ESCALATING HYBRID ACTIVITIES’ AGAINST NATO, EU NATIONS AFTER DATA CABLES SEVERED

A Polish border guard at the Polish-Belarus border fence near the village of Ozierany Male, Poland, on Friday, Jul. 4, 2025.  (Damian Lemanski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

«The eastern flank is much more powerful than even five years ago,» Sikorski said. «We were right about the nature of Putin’s regime and Russia’s aggressive strategy.»

That view has shaped Poland’s approach to the United States. Warsaw wants American troops to remain in Europe, but Polish officials also acknowledge that Europe must assume more of the defense burden as U.S. attention increasingly shifts toward China and the Indo-Pacific.

Sikorski said Poland understands that «Europe ceased to be angle number one for U.S. foreign policy,» but wants any change in America’s role to be «gradual and well-designed.»

He added that Poland wants the shift in trans-Atlantic security to be «not a divorce, but a new kind of relationship.»

For now, that relationship is being tested along a cold, wooded border where Poland says NATO’s future wars may already be taking shape.

The Polish soldiers patrolling the frontier do not describe their mission in grand geopolitical terms. Korkosz said she joined the military because she wanted to do «something which matters.»

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Members of Poland’s 18th «Iron Division» patrol the Belarus border as Warsaw accuses Belarus and Russia of funneling illegal migrants toward NATO territory. May 16, 2026. (Efrat Lachter/Fox News Digital)

But to Polish officials, the mission at the Belarus border is much bigger than immigration enforcement.

It is a warning to the rest of NATO that the alliance’s next war may not begin with tanks crossing a border, but with migrants pushed through forests, cyberattacks on power grids, drones near airports and disinformation campaigns designed to fracture societies from within.