WASHINGTON — A key Senate Democrat is vowing that “everything will be on the table” to prevent taxpayer dollars from going toward construction of President Donald Trump’s contentious East Wing ballroom project.

The pledge from Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray comes as some analysts are warning the lightning-rod president has turned the White House into another partisan battleground, upending a compromise forged between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson that had lasted centuries since the mansion was completed in 1800.

That, however, changed last week when crews spent several days demolishing the executive compound’s East Wing to make way for Trump’s envisioned 90,000-square-foot ballroom. The president and his team contend the facility’s construction will be completely paid for by Trump’s own money, as well as hefty donations from corporations and wealthy individuals.

Murray said taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for the demolition or “to build a massive golden ballroom — especially at a time when this administration has passed the largest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in history and refuses to lift a finger to keep health care premiums from more than doubling,” Murray said in a statement, referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“The American people should not be forking over $300 million for a vanity project that was totally unnecessary and is rife with corruption — everything will be on the table for me to ensure taxpayers don’t get stuck with the tab as we move forward with the appropriations process,” the Washington-state Democrat added.

Murray and Democrats, however, could face an uphill battle since they are in the minority in both the Senate and House.

Trump signaled several times last week that he’s exceeded his $300 million fundraising goal for the project, saying he had secured $350 million in private funds and his own dollars. At one point, he mused about using any leftover ballroom donations on another project: a possible arch between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial near Washington’s Memorial Bridge — which could become another funding battle for lawmakers, who first need to find a way out of the ongoing government shutdown.

The president on Oct. 22 defended tearing down the entire East Wing as a smart structural and financial move that was backed up by architects he did not name.

“Certain areas are being left,” he said, though photographic, video and satellite evidence now shows only dirt where the East Wing once stood. “After really a tremendous amount of study, with some of the best architects in the world, we determined that really knocking it down, trying to use a little section, the East wing was not much, it was not much left from the original.”

“It was, over the course of 100 years, it was changed. The columns were removed, and it was a much different building,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “Then a story was added on in 1948, 1949. There was a story added on, which was not particularly nice, and the building was very, very much changed from what it was originally. It was never thought of as being much.”

Beyond a long list of unanswered legal, funding and ethical questions, the political dynamics over the construction could become combustible.

“The Democrats are going to campaign on the White House being turned into a playground for the elite. The next Democratic president — and there will be one — will repurpose the ballroom into something that the Republicans hate,” said Edward Lengel, a former chief historian for the White House Historical Association. “They won’t tear it down, but they’ll do something like rename it the ‘Joe Biden Wing’ or the ‘Joe Biden Ballroom’ and repurpose it — which by the way, will create new costs.”

“The word that keeps coming to mind is ‘hubris.’ The current administration seems to forget that the other side can throw punches, too. The Democrats feed on hatred of Donald Trump. But he doesn’t seem to see that when the Democrats come back in, they’re going to be incredibly motivated to do something with this (ballroom) that embarrasses Republicans and tries to erase the Trump legacy,” Lengel added. “They’re going to break norms, too, because he did it first. Washington and Jefferson compromised on the current White House. What emerged was an agreement over time that … changes would never be partisan. Now the two sides will probably just go back and forth over this.”

‘We knock it in’

White House aides appeared taken aback last week at the blowback Trump got for the East Wing teardown, something he initially said he would not do.

“It won’t interfere with the current building. It won’t be. It’ll be near it but not touching it — and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of,” he said in July.

But last week, the former real estate mogul appeared to signal that the wall of the ornate East Room that would separate it from the new structure could have its days numbered.

“You see the gold drapes, that’s a knock-out panel. We knock it in, you go, that comes out, and then you have, essentially, glass and exactly in the decor of the White House,” Trump said during an Oct. 20 event with college baseball champions. “I didn’t know I’d be standing here right now because right on the other side, you have a lot of construction going on, which you might hear periodically, but that’s a knockout panel and that goes right into the ballroom. And the ballroom is going to be beautiful.”

The president has shared his vision for future events and dinners in dribs and drabs. Last week, he described the East Room — which has been home to presidential press conferences, summits, lavish parties, musical performances and other events for decades — as a future party staging area.

“So you’ll have drinks, cocktails, everything on this floor. And then they’ll say, ‘Welcome to dinner.’ You walk into the ballroom … and you’re going to see a ballroom the likes of which I don’t think will … be topped. It’ll be the finest.”

One longtime White House observer, granted anonymity to be candid, said late last week that, should the public turn against the lavish ballroom project at a time when consumer prices remain high, Trump’s aides could begin pleading for him to pursue a smaller facility.

But Lengel predicted that’s not going to happen.

“He’s not going to accept any scaling back. Bigger is always better for him,” Lengel said Monday. “That would be deeply humiliating for him. This is going to overshadow the actual White House in a very profound way. Once it’s finished, he’ll say, ‘Who cares if anyone was dishonest or not transparent about the actual plan? Look at what you got.’”

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