President Donald Trump said Saturday night that the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner hours earlier highlighted the need for his planned White House ballroom — a project that has been mired in legal battles for months.
Trump described the venue of the correspondents’ dinner, the Washington Hilton, as “not a particularly secure building.”
“We need the ballroom,” he said, listing some of its security features, including bulletproof glass and “drone-proof” measures.
Even if the new ballroom were built, it’s not at all clear that a future White House correspondents’ dinner would be held there. The dinner is a private event, not a government function. That question, however, did not slow the chorus of conservative officials and right-wing commentators who seized on the shooting to argue for the $400 million project.
“Unfortunately, the First Lady and I had to be evacuated from the White House correspondents’ dinner alongside the President and the entire cabinet,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry posted on X, referring to his wife, Sharon. “This event is yet another reason that President Trump’s ballroom should be built!”
Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida) wrote: “We’d better never again hear a peep from anyone complaining about a White House ballroom.”
Conservative commentators Meghan McCain, Tom Fitton and Nick Adams all joined in the refrain for building the ballroom to ensure the safety of presidents and their guests.
Activist Chaya Raichik, who runs the Libs of TikTok social media accounts, made the case plainly: “THIS IS WHY WE NEED TRUMP’S BALLROOM.”
Trump’s invocation of the ballroom’s security bona fides has potential legal significance. For months, he has argued in federal court that security features included in the ballroom, as well as in the secure bunker underneath where it would be built, justify continued construction. Those features include bulletproof glass, drone-proof roofing, bomb shelters, hardened telecommunications, a secure HVAC system and “very major medical facilities,” Trump says.
Those arguments have been at the center of a running legal battle with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued the Trump administration in December, saying that Trump needed to get approvals from Congress and federal review commissions before pushing ahead with the project.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that Trump could not continue the project without congressional approval but carved out an exception for “actions strictly necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House.” Trump argued that the exception allowed him to keep building unabated, given that the ballroom would include security features.
The National Trust was skeptical. “It is difficult to believe that even Defendants really think the absence of a massive White House ballroom jeopardizes national security,” the group’s lawyers wrote in a court filing.
Leon rejected Trump’s argument and ordered him to halt aboveground construction, although an appeals court allowed it to continue until a hearing in June.
At Saturday’s dinner, a suspect armed with a shotgun and other weapons charged past a Secret Service checkpoint outside the Washington Hilton’s ballroom before being stopped and taken into custody. One Secret Service agent was shot in the chest but was protected by a bullet-resistant vest. Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and members of the Cabinet were evacuated.
The Washington Hilton, where the dinner has been held for years, was open to regular guests during the event. Trump contrasted that with the controlled environment of a White House ballroom. The proposed 90,000-square-foot structure — nearly as large as the entire White House complex — would seat 999 guests and is funded entirely by private donations, according to Trump.
The project has been contested since Trump ordered the rapid demolition of the East Wing last fall without first seeking congressional authorization. Critics argue the building would dwarf a centuries-old American symbol. Supporters, including some Biden- and Obama-era alumni, have acknowledged the White House lacks a proper large-scale event space.
Trump has called it “a great legacy project” modeled on Versailles and his own Mar-a-Lago estate.
Saturday’s shooting handed the project’s supporters a visceral new argument: “All the more reason we need a secure safe impenetrable ballroom at the White House,” Michigan state Rep. Matt Maddock posted.
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