Trump Defends $400 Million White House Ballroom Cost as Senate Republicans Seek $1 Billion More

President Trump defended the new estimated cost of around $400 million for a White House ballroom renovation project on Wednesday. The figure is roughly double what the president had repeatedly said the project would cost and be funded with private donations.

Senate Republicans separately proposed adding $1 billion in taxpayer funds for security enhancements to the same project. The White House ballroom cost defense came a day after Republican lawmakers floated the additional taxpayer funding. Trump has maintained the project would come in under $200 million with no public money involved.

proposal aimed at ending the months-long war, according to the country's state-owned news agency ISNA. The agency described parts of an Axios report on an imminent 14-point memorandum of understanding as containing ambitious and unrealistic proposals that Iran has rejected in recent days.

ISNA emphasized that discussions focus on ending the war rather than the nuclear issue. The White House reportedly believes it could be closing in on the one-page memorandum that would establish a framework for future talks on Tehran’s nuclear program.

President Trump said that should Iran fail to agree to a deal, combat operations against Iran will resume at a significantly increased tempo. The back-and-forth comes amid a stalemate in the conflict.

Gains U.S. stock futures rose in pre-market trading with the S&P 500 setting a new record after more than $1 trillion in market value was added. AMD jumped 21 percent after beating earnings and revenue expectations with guidance citing accelerating data center growth and strong demand for processors and GPU shipments.

Corning gained 15 percent after announcing a long-term partnership with Nvidia to strengthen U.S. manufacturing for AI infrastructure. Google parent Alphabet rose 1.6 percent after Anthropic committed to spend $200 billion with Google Cloud over five years.

Anthropic also signed a deal to rent 30 megawatts of compute from Elon Musk’s xAI. government agencies. Fertilizer and chemical companies fell on optimism that the Iran conflict may end, with Dow, CF Industries, and LyondellBasell each dropping around 7 to 8 percent.

A White House official named Patrick Witt said the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve announcement is coming within weeks.

“The president defends the new estimated cost of around $400 million for his White House ballroom, while Senate Republicans are trying to tack on $1 billion in taxpayer funds for 'security enhancements' for the project." — CNN, May 6, 2026 Nvidia faces increasing competition in the AI processor market from other chipmakers and its largest customers, which is spooking some investors even as demand for AI infrastructure remains strong across multiple earnings reports.”