The White House is reviewing how best to protect President Donald Trump after Saturday’s shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner raised new questions about the protocols and procedures needed to keep the nation’s leaders safe.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles plans to convene a meeting this week with leaders of the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security to discuss lessons from Saturday’s shooting and next steps to protect the president, officials said Monday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to say what changes may be made but did not rule out new limits on Trump’s public appearances or other changes.
“These conversations will take place in private, but if adjustments need to be made to protect the president, they will be made,” Leavitt told reporters on Monday.
Saturday’s incident — in which a gunman stormed through the security checkpoint outside the dinner, but was stopped short of the ballroom where the event was taking place — was the third time in less than two years that Trump found himself under the threat of gunfire. White House officials have defended their existing safety protocols, noting that the alleged shooter was apprehended and that no dinner attendees were injured.
But lawmakers, outside security experts and even some administration officials have acknowledged that the incident highlighted serious risks. The process used to protect the president and his top deputies, witnessed by hundreds of reporters in person and captured by C-SPAN television cameras, appeared disordered and in need of improvement.
Agents evacuated Vice President JD Vance before whisking away Trump, and other security personnel needed several minutes to collect some Cabinet officials — at times walking across tables and chairs in the crowded room in an effort to retrieve them. Many senior officials, including those without assigned protective details, were left to fend for themselves.
Moreover, many attendees have publicly said that the hotel in which the event took place — and in which dozens of Cabinet secretaries and other senior officials were present before the dinner — lacked adequate security. The administration provided a lower level of security for the dinner than it has for other gatherings of high-ranking officials, even though Trump and most of the officials in the presidential line of succession were in attendance, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
The White House’s move to revisit security protocols comes as the president plans to attend a series of high-profile events this year intended to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, including an IndyCar race in Washington and an Ultimate Fighting Championship match outside the White House, which are expected to draw tens of thousands of attendees. The Wiles-led meeting with administration security officials will explore “additional options” to ensure Trump’s safety at those events, White House officials said Monday.
The president is also expected to attend World Cup matches hosted in the United States, political rallies ahead of November’s midterms and other major events in the coming months.
“We are entering a summer like no other summer before, just in terms of the scale and scope of events,” said Juliette Kayyem, a former homeland security official in President Barack Obama’s administration who now works with public and private entities on their event safety planning efforts. “It doesn’t mean that anything bad is going to happen; it just means we have to be ready.”
Leaders on Capitol Hill said Monday that they had questions, too, about ensuring safety at high-profile events. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) scheduled a Monday afternoon briefing with Secret Service Director Sean Curran to discuss security protocols, a Grassley spokesperson confirmed. The Republican senator previously probed the attempted assassination of Trump nearly two years ago in Butler, Pennsylvania, faulting the Secret Service for failures to share key information about threats to the president.
I’m setting up a briefing w Secret Service leadership & Ranking Member Durbin regarding security protocols & related law enforcement matters involving the WH Correspondents Dinner THX to Secret Service last night for quick action & attn to briefing
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) April 26, 2026
Grassley, the longest-serving Republican senator, is the president pro tempore of the Senate, putting him third in line for presidential succession. Durbin is the No. 2 Senate Democrat. Both senators have protective details given their roles.
Trump and his allies have also used the shooting to press their case for the president’s planned White House ballroom. A federal judge ruled last month that Trump lacked unilateral authority to proceed with the project but made an exception for work “strictly necessary” to ensure White House security. A three-judge appeals court panel has halted the judge’s order for now.
Trump and his Justice Department have called for ballroom construction to move forward and for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the nonprofit organization that has filed suit to halt the project, to drop its case.
“It is actually critical for our national security that a larger, secure building on this complex — which is the most secure complex in the world — is built to accommodate not only large amounts of guests, but also the president, the vice president, members of the Cabinet,” Leavitt said Monday.
The National Trust said Monday that it would continue its legal challenge, rejecting Trump officials’ contention that the lawsuit endangers the president.
Kayyem said she was puzzled by the White House’s renewed calls for a ballroom, particularly given that the annual correspondents’ dinner is hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association, a private organization.
“That’s like saying, ‘Have your wedding in my ballroom if you want me to come,’” Kayyem said. “It’s not his wedding.”
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