"Late Show" host Stephen Colbert exposed President Donald Trump’s repeated lies about his planned $400 million White House ballroom after Republicans included $1 billion for the project in their reconciliation package released on Monday.
"Okay, I know it’s hard to wrap your head around a billion dollars," Colbert said. "Let me put that in layman’s terms, that is bullshit. Because from the whole start of this thing, Trump has had one unwavering promise about his ballroom."
Colbert then played a supercut of Trump promising that no taxpayer money would be used to build the ballroom. "By the way, zero money spent by the government, zero," Trump said in one clip. "It’s all donations, rich people and people are putting up the money, zero taxpayer dollars," he claimed in another.
"How ironic," Colbert said. "To lie that blatantly takes a lot of balls. And he still hasn’t built the room to store them."
Since the apparent assassination attempt on Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, the president has doubled down on the argument that the ballroom is needed for security purposes. Congressional Republicans have followed suit, using the apparent political capital they have in the wake of the shooting to push through the $1 billion request for the ballroom.
Since the reconciliation package only needs a simple majority in the Senate to pass and is not subject to the filibuster, Trump will likely get his $1 billion wish. Watch Colbert’s full monologue from Wednesday night’s show here.
