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Following the shooting that took place outside the ballroom of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday evening, President Donald Trump, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and several allies of the president renewed calls to build an extravagant ballroom at the White House, claiming the shooting demonstrated a need for greater security at the event.
However, it’s unlikely that the proposed White House ballroom would be used in future correspondents’ dinners, as the White House Correspondents’ Association is an independent organization, hosting its events outside of the White House to demonstrate its separation from the administration.
The shooting on Saturday occurred on the floor above the event, near the security checkpoint of the dinner, a significant distance from where Trump and other dignitaries were settling in to begin the event. The shooting has raised questions about the security of the event, including whether the Washington Hilton is safe to continue hosting the dinners, and whether the Secret Service had done an adequate job securing the perimeter.
“This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House,” Trump claimed in a Truth Social post on Sunday morning. “It cannot be built fast enough!”
“This event is yet another reason that President @realDonaldTrump’s ballroom should be built!” Gov. Jeff Landry (R-Louisiana), who was at the event when the shooting occurred, said on X.
“I don’t want to hear one more fucking criticism of Trump’s new ballroom at the White House,” conservative commentator Meghan McCain said.
A lawsuit brought forward by the National Trust for Historic Preservation alleges that the administration did not go through the proper legal protocols in tearing down the original East Wing of the White House and starting construction of an enormous ballroom.
“As the organization charged with protecting places where our history happened, the National Trust was compelled to file this case,” Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said in a statement when the lawsuit was filed in December.
But after the shooting on Saturday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche sent a letter to the organization, blasting them for filing the suit and demanding they drop it.
“If your client does not dismiss the lawsuit by 9:00 AM on Monday, the government will move to dissolve the injunction and dismiss the case in light of last night’s extraordinary events,” Blanche said in a letter shared on X on Sunday.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, like the organization that hosts it, is independent of the administration, and thus has traditionally been hosted away from the White House. Saturday was the first time Trump had attended the annual dinner as president, as he skipped the event last year and every year during his first term in office.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Trump acknowledged that the gunman wasn’t “anywhere close” to entering the room he was in. Additional comments from the president on Saturday night appear to indicate that he didn’t feel endangered by the security levels and wanted the program to continue.
“The shooter has been apprehended, and I have recommended that we ‘LET THE SHOW GO ON,'” Trump said on Truth Social.
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