[00:00] Once again, the Supreme Court has sided with Donald Trump, which, according to this, is not uncommon at all. Donald Trump will be allowed to proceed with the building of the White House ballroom, despite the fact that Donald Trump argues that the ballroom is going to be paid for by private enterprises.
[00:17] What's interesting is, despite the money they're raising from these private enterprises, there are reports that the total construction is going to cost as much as $600 million, based on leaked contractor estimates that have been viewed by reporters.
[00:31] Who knows? It could all be fugazi. But if it costs $600 million and we are only raising $300 million from private enterprises, this is going to end up costing taxpayers about $300 million.
[00:43] But anyway, regardless of the cost, apparently this facility is now being viewed as a vital security feature for the president and that they need this 90,000 square foot ballroom
[00:57] because it's not only going to include a new bomb shelter, but it's probably expected to include drone ports, a sniper nest, a hospital, and room for individuals like foreign dignitaries
[01:12] to be protected in the event of attacks as well. This is pretty remarkable. And the Supreme Court, in terms of their allowing the construction to proceed, didn really give us any color in terms of why They simply said hey there was an application to stay the lower court ruling that construction has to stop and we are going to approve that stay
[01:34] So we're basically going to say, hey, whatever the other court said about halting construction, just ignore that for now while we think about it. So the Supreme Court is essentially saying, just keep building until we think about it. According to actual voting by Supreme Court
[01:49] members. In Donald Trump's second term, Justice Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Thomas, and Barrett vote in favor of Donald Trump's policies 79% of the time. Robert's 74% of the time. Alito and
[02:07] Gorsuch, by the way, 95% of the time in favor of Donald Trump. When Biden was president, those conservative justices, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas voted for Biden policies just 18 to 41%
[02:21] of the time. It goes both ways though. Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson, the left-leaning justices, clearly left-leaning, vote for Donald Trump policies 0, 11, and 26% of the time, but Biden
[02:34] policies they vote for 77, 88, and 82% of the time. In other words, as much as we think the Supreme Court is independent and really trying to interpret the Constitution because that's what we were taught in 5th grade
[02:47] it turns out it all depends on what party you're in