Union Pacific (UP), the largest railroad company in the United States, is one of 24 companies that have donated to Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom. Union Pacific joins other major corporations like Amazon, Meta and Google in their direct financial contribution to the ballroom, though the exact amount given by UP is unknown.
While Trump demolishes the East Wing to make room for a grand, opulent ballroom, tens of millions are facing hunger in America due to his administration’s cutoff of food stamps. The administration is using the government shutdown to dismantle social services and bring independent agencies under Trump’s direct personal control.
The donation comes after a meeting between Trump and UP CEO Jim Vena to discuss the proposed merger between UP and Norfolk Southern, which Trump has made public statements supporting. At that meeting, Vena also discussed with Trump where next to deploy the National Guard in the United States. According to Trump, he suggested the president send troops to occupy Memphis, St. Louis and Chicago. Court battles have delayed the sending of troops to Chicago so far, although ICE is running rampant throughout the area.
A major reason why USA doesn’t have high speed rail is the overt fascism of rail barons.
That’s my understanding as well. Even if the ballroom can be completely funded by “““donations“”” (bribes, tributes, etc.), it’s still up to Congress to allocate those funds for that purpose. Neither the president nor the donors can designate that money for a specific purpose on their own. That is, if the constitution and laws were still enforced.
It also depends on where the money is being donated. If it’s his presidential library, he can effectively spend that wherever he wants, since that’s a lovely little loophole we have.