Hours after a gunman tried to enter the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night, President Donald Trump said the terrifying incident was a prime example for why the White House needed a “large, safe, and secure” ballroom—decrying the lawsuit attempting to halt its construction as “ridiculous” in a Sunday morning post on Truth Social.
President Donald Trump speaks at a press conference following the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
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Trump said in a Sunday morning Truth Social post the shooting at the Correspondents’ Dinner was “exactly the reason” the ballroom was needed, insisting the incident “would never have happened” in what he called his planned “Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House.”
Trump said the future ballroom would have “every highest level security feature there is” and would not have rooms for “unsecured people” in the floors above—shortly after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the suspected gunman may have been staying in the same hotel the event was hosted at.
The president attacked the lawsuit attempting to block its construction, which he says was brought by a “woman walking her dog, who has absolutely No Standing to bring such a suit”—possibly attacking an architectural historian who filed a declaration supporting the lawsuit.
Trump’s comments come after multiple elected officials also called for the continued construction of the ballroom—Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said the shooting on Saturday was “yet another reason” for the new building, while Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said a White House ballroom would be helpful for “events exactly like these.”
Trump and other top officials were abruptly whisked away from Saturday night’s dinner after shots were fired outside the event at the Washington Hilton. Authorities detained a suspected shooter, who Trump said shot a law enforcement officer as he appeared to try to rush past security to enter the event. The officer was wearing a bulletproof vest and survived the attack. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday investigators suspect the alleged shooter was targeting Trump administration officials, many of whom were in attendance Saturday night. Trump said at a late Saturday night press briefing he believes the alleged shooter was a “lone wolf” but cautioned that was just his initial opinion and more would be learned through the course of an investigation.
$400 million. That’s how much Trump estimates the ballroom will cost, although he has been adamant it will be funded through donations and not cost taxpayer money. The budget for the building has doubled since Trump first announced the project last July.
Construction for the White House ballroom began after the East Wing was quickly torn down last October. Although plans for the project have been approved by planning commissions staffed with Trump loyalists, a lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation still threatens to derail the construction. In March, Judge Richard Leon ordered the government to halt construction, finding Congress never authorized funding for the new project. The Trump administration won a minor court victory earlier in April, when an appeals court temporarily paused Leon’s injunction while the Trump administration appeals the decision.
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