President Donald Trump has offered a fresh defense of his divisive White House ballroom, insisting it is necessary “for the safety of the president,” and that the project is really about delivering security upgrades, not a luxury events space. Speaking in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Trump was asked by a member of the press corps why taxpayers should now be ”on the hook” for a total of $1 billion, as proposed by Republicans in a new Homeland Security spending bill , after he had originally said the expense would be $400 million and paid for by wealthy private donors. “Well, they’re not,” the president answered, saying of the $1 billion figure: “That’s for many other projects having to do with safety in a certain section of the White House grounds. That’s not all for the ballroom. President Donald Trump, flanked by Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, gives up an update on his White House ballroom Thursday (Getty) “We’re putting up $400 million to do the ballroom section of the ballroom.…