The General Services Administration, the federal agency that manages federal real estate and provides centralized procurement for civilian agencies, awarded a no-bid federal contract worth nearly $50,000 to a small Virginia contractor, with government officials citing "unusual and compelling urgency" — for the installation of four Great Gatsby-style chandeliers ahead of President Donald Trump's birthday, The Washington Sun reports.

A previously unreported contracting document dated June 5 reads: "In this particular case, the environment of the 250th anniversary, the birthday, and other events [redacted] ... This must happen over the weekend as these must be in place before the June anniversary events," according to the Sun.

Trump's 80th birthday fell the following Sunday — June 14 — the same night as the UFC fight on the White House lawn, the outlet noted. The president spent the weekend of June 6-7 away from the White House, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The GSA chose Agile1Tech, a Virginia-based government construction contractor, to install the four light fixtures at their princely prices. The company had "recently completed the contract which created the UFC viewing/gaming room," the contracting document states.

Officials argued in the document that "Agile1Tech is familiar with how to brace these chandeliers in a structure that may not support such weight," adding: "Given the urgency and the unique structures in the ceilings of the White House, Agile1Tech is the contractor identified to this urgent need. … Based on the results of market research, the government determined that a limited number of vendors were available, but none possessed the capability to properly install a complex chandelier in a historic environment." Under federal acquisition rules, an "unusual and compelling urgency" finding is one of the limited justifications that allows an agency to award a contract without full and open competition when a delay would seriously injure the government's interests.

Agile1Tech initially billed the government $22,000 for the chandelier installations, according to the Sun. On Aug. 27, the contract more than doubled, adding $27,600 for an "additional 3 chandeliers" — a modification that arrived months after the June anniversary events cited in the urgency justification.

Trump is known for hosting Great Gatsby-themed parties at Mar-a-Lago, complete with 1920s dresses, headbands, dancers and Prohibition-era nostalgia.

Despite the outlay of US taxpayer money on the celebration, the president struggled to draw a decent turnout at his observance of America's 250th birthday, which critics said focused on promoting Trump himself rather than American history. Some critics also speculated that Trump might have used the semiquincentennial to "bolster his, and his party's, fortunes for the fall."

The chandelier disclosure arrived as the president faces an unwelcome economic development that undercuts his pitch to voters on the campaign trail. Within a week of Trump declaring that "prices are coming down very fast," inflation was climbing again, and the latest figures from his own government came in much worse than economists projected. The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the Consumer Price Index, a widely watched gauge tracking price changes across consumer goods and services, rose 3.7 percent year on year in September, up from 3.4 percent in August.