Follow up to previous posting Trump’s demolition of the White House East Wing is nearly complete – Public Citizen: “The corporate and billionaire donors to Donald Trump’s gaudy ballroom project are beset by conflicts of interest, according to a new Public Citizen report – Banquet of Greed: Trump Ballroom Donors Feast on Federal Funds and Favors. Here are some quick facts from the report:

• Two-thirds of the 24 known corporate donors have recent government contracts for projects, totaling $279 billion over the last five years. Lockheed Martin is the largest of the government contractors, with $191 billion in federal contracts over the last five years.
• Of the 24 corporate donors, 14 are facing federal enforcement actions and/or have had federal enforcement actions suspended by the Trump administration. These include major antitrust actions involving Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and T-Mobile; labor rights cases involving Amazon, Apple, Caterpillar, Google, Lockheed and Meta; and SEC matters involving Coinbase and Ripple.
• The corporate and billionaire funders of the ballroom have spent $1.6 billion on lobbying and campaign contributions over the last five years.
• The companies self-report a stunningly wide array of interests before the federal government, involving everything from taxation to trade policy, battlefield domain awareness to telephone poles, consumer privacy to product liability rules, appropriations to cybersecurity – and much more.

See also Senator Ed Markey questioning whether ACECO followed federal health and safety standards during the demolition, or if it placed its own workers and the public at risk of exposure to asbestos and other hazardous materials. “Damaged asbestos fibers are one of the most hazardous substances that can arise from construction demolition. Unless their presence is disclosed, individuals have no way of knowing that the air may contain tiny, tasteless and odorless fibers that cause no noticeable irritation but can be deadly. Construction workers on the East Wing site, nearby office workers and tourists, and passersby could now be at heightened risk of developing lung cancer, asbestosis, or mesothelioma from the inhalation of demolition dust.” … “ACECO’s work falls squarely within a network of federal regulations governing demolition, hazardous-material handling, and worker protection. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) asbestos standard requires that employers identify, monitor, and control asbestos exposure in demolition work. And the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) rules require inspection, advance notice, and approved abatement or containment procedures before demolition of a structure containing asbestos.”