WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, who was hustled out of a hotel ballroom Saturday night when a gunman dashed through a security checkpoint, is seizing on the incident to gin up support for a White House ballroom that has faced legal challenges that threaten to shut down the project.
Trump has made the argument in the hours after the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner that the nation needs a fortified ballroom on White House grounds so that the president and government officials are not in peril.
After laying out the security vulnerabilities of a busy hotel, Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday that the 90,000-square-foot ballroom he is building where the East Wing once stood is “really what you need.”
He added that the ballroom was “designed in conjunction with the military and in conjunction with the Secret Service. It’s got every single bell and whistle you can possibly have for security and safety.”
In a social media post Sunday morning, Trump added, "This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!"
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A federal judge has issued repeated orders blocking construction of the ballroom, holding that Trump exceeded his authority in proceeding without congressional approval. On April 17, a federal appeals court allowed construction to continue while a suit contending that the work is unlawful winds through the courts.
Now, coming off the frightening episode at the Washington Hilton, Trump’s appointees and congressional allies are stepping in to eliminate judicial roadblocks and plump for Trump's passion project.
On Sunday, the Justice Department sent a letter to the plaintiffs in the case, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, calling on the group to drop its suit.
“The White House ballroom will ensure the safety and security of the president for decades to come and prevent future assassination attempts on the president at the Washington Hilton,” reads a letter from Brett Shumate, assistant attorney general in the civil division.
The letter assumes the White House Correspondents' Association would agree to hold its annual dinner in a future White House ballroom. But that's not guaranteed.
The dinner is an occasion to celebrate the First Amendment and a free and independent press. That point may could get lost if the president becomes the host; the journalists, his guests.
Money raised at the event helps pay for scholarships awarded to promising college students. The Hilton holds 3,000 people, whereas the ballroom Trump envisions has a capacity of about 1,000 — meaning staging it there could raise less revenue for a group that is hardly flush with cash.
In a statement Sunday, the association's board said that it “will be meeting to assess what happened and determined how to proceed."
Separately, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told NBC News that he will introduce a bill Monday that would both authorize the ballroom and provide funds to pay for it. So far, Trump has relied on private donations to underwrite the project, which also includes underground medical facilities and a bomb shelter.
“Some people saw it [the ballroom] as a vanity project,” Graham said Sunday. “I don’t think that’s true anymore. I just talked to the president and the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘We’ve got to get that ballroom, not for me but for future presidents.’”
Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mt., also said Sunday that he would put forward legislation approving the ballroom, as did Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.
“It is an embarrassment to the strongest nation on earth that we cannot host gatherings in our nation’s capital, including ones attended by our president, without the threat of violence and attempted assassinations,” Sheehy wrote on X.
Others questioned the sincerity of those who contend the answer to the terrifying incident at the hotel is a $400 million White House ballroom.
Ned Price, a State Department spokesman under former President Joe Biden, said, “The whole thing to me seems a manufactured argument that is cynically taking advantage of this moment to make that case” for the ballroom project.
A hot ticket on Washington’s social calendar, the correspondents' dinner has long been an event that past presidents didn't pass up. Trump was an exception. His appearance Saturday was his first as president. The night figured to be a riveting bit of theater.
Tradition holds that, in formal wear, the president and press corps toast and roast one another in a cocktail-infused spirit of camaraderie, however fleeting.
Not this time.
As Trump sat with his wife, Melania Trump, on the dais at the Washington Hilton, shots rang out and he and other senior government officials were quickly evacuated.
The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, exchanged gunfire with law enforcement and was tackled, authorities said. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that preliminary findings show the suspect was targeting Trump administration officials.
The incident has sparked fresh questions about continuity of government and the measures taken to ensure the president’s safety. A president can’t afford to be cocooned in the White House — a reality that Trump recognizes. White House aides have said that Trump needs a vigorous campaign schedule if Republicans are to retain control of Congress in the midterm elections in November.
Yet, the more a president travels, the greater the risk of assassination. Four U.S. presidents were killed in office. As a candidate in 2024, Trump survived two attempts on his life.
After Trump, next in the line of presidential succession are Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. Both were in the ballroom Saturday. Had all been killed, the next in the line would be President Pro tempore of the Senate: Chuck Grassley of Iowa. Grassley, 92, was at home that night in New Hartford, Iowa, according to his spokesperson.
“We don’t want to change our ways too much, but you’ve got to be practical,” Graham said. “The venue matters a lot. Any time we’re having events that are not at the Capitol or at the White House, we should think about line of succession problems.”
“Listen, this could have been far worse,” he added. “This guy was a lone wolf and look at how he was able to come in, armed to the teeth. What if he had 10 people with him? What if he had 10 committed terrorists willing to die? It could have been carnage.”
Already, law enforcement officials are discussing stricter protocols for future events that the president might attend, a senior Trump administration official said. Following the episode at the Hilton, Trump said that he wanted to hold a make-up correspondents' dinner in the next month.
“If it is rescheduled, I would imagine it would be moved to a different facility or look much different as far as the security protocol for getting in,” the Trump administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk freely.
Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service, said in a prepared statement that “the key takeaway for future events is that enhancements should be expected at every level.”
The Hilton has been home to the correspondents' dinner for the past 50 years. If that continues, law enforcement may put in place new procedures that might include inspection of luggage, tighter screening of hotel guests and new restrictions on their movements inside the hotel, the administration official said. Allen had traveled to Washington by train and had checked into the hotel as a guest, investigators believe.
William Barr, a former attorney general in Trump’s first term, contrasted the dinner with the president’s State of the Union address, held in the Capitol under the tightest security. Even then, a member of the president's Cabinet traditionally stays away — the "designated survivor" in case of a massacre in the chamber.
“The State of the Union involves a risky concentration of leadership, but at least that take place within a government facility where more comprehensive security is possible — not a public hotel with hundreds of unvetted people in close proximity,” Barr, who has attended past correspondents' dinners, told NBC News.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., who also attended the dinner and was evacuated by security, said in an interview: “Probably can’t do stuff like that at an open venue like a hotel when you have so many people in the line of succession there.”
In a polarized political climate, Trump and future presidents may need to balance personal security with the need to travel and be accessible to everyday Americans. A ballroom may be safe and secure, but the argument that it's necessary to keep a sitting president alive seems specious, critics argue.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group that sued for release of the ballroom funding agreement, said, "The argument is an absurdity. No one would expect the president to be locked in a bunker for all events."
