WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, who rushed out of a hotel ballroom Saturday night as a suspected gunman ran through a security checkpoint, is using the incident to rally support for the White House Ballroom, which faces legal challenges that threaten to shut down the project.
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In the hours after the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, President Trump argued that the nation needs a fortified banquet hall on the White House grounds so that the president and senior administration officials are not put at risk.
After revealing security vulnerabilities at the crowded hotel, President Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday that the 90,000-square-foot ballroom being built on the site of the former East Building is “something we really need.”
He added that the ballroom was “designed in conjunction with the military and the Secret Service. It has every feature that can be put in place for security and safety.”
In a social media post Sunday morning, President Trump added, “This event would never have happened if there was a secret military banquet hall currently being built at the White House. We can’t build it fast enough!”
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We took a tour of the White House gardens showing the construction of President Trump
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A federal judge has repeatedly issued orders blocking Mr. Trump from building a banquet hall, saying he overstepped his authority by proceeding without Congressional approval. On April 17, a federal appeals court allowed construction to continue even as a lawsuit claiming the construction is illegal makes its way through the courts.
Now, in the wake of the horrific events at the Washington Hilton, Trump’s appointees and allies in Congress are stepping in to remove judicial roadblocks and focus on Trump’s passion projects.
The Justice Department sent a letter Sunday to the plaintiff in the case, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, asking the group to drop the lawsuit.
“The White House Ballroom will ensure the safety and security of the President for decades to come and will deter future presidential assassination attempts at the Washington Hilton,” the letter from Assistant Attorney General for Civil Affairs Brett Shumate said.
The letter envisions WHCA agreeing to hold its annual banquet in the White House Ballroom in the future. But it’s not guaranteed.
This dinner is an opportunity to celebrate the First Amendment and a free and independent press. That point could be lost if the president becomes the host. Journalist, his guest.
Money raised at this event will help pay for scholarships awarded to promising college students. The Hilton has a capacity of 3,000 people, but President Trump’s proposed banquet hall has a capacity of about 1,000 people. That means hosting there could mean less revenue for the WHCA, which has little cash.
The WHCA board said in a statement Sunday that it will “meet to assess what happened and decide how to proceed.”
Separately, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told NBC News he plans to introduce a bill Monday that would authorize the use of the ballroom and provide funding to pay for it. President Trump has so far relied on private donations to underwrite the project, which also includes an underground medical facility and air raid shelter.
“Some people saw it (the ballroom) as a vanity project,” Graham told NBC News on Sunday. “I don’t think that’s true anymore. I just talked to the president, and the first thing that came out of his mouth was, ‘We’ve got to save that ballroom for future presidents, not for me.'”
Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mt.) also said Sunday that he would introduce a bill to authorize the ballroom, as would Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).
“It is a disgrace to the most powerful nation on earth that we cannot host rallies, including those attended by our president, in our nation’s capital without the threat of violence or assassination attempts,” Sheehy wrote to X.
Some questioned the sincerity of those who claimed the answer to the horrifying incident at the hotel lay in the $400 million White House ballroom.
“This whole thing looks to me like a manufactured argument that is cynically trying to use this moment to make its point,” Ned Price, a State Department spokesman under former President Joe Biden, said of the ballroom project.
The WHCA banquet, the centerpiece of Washington’s social calendar, has been an event not missed by presidents over the years. Trump was an exception. His appearance Saturday was his first as president. The evening turned into a magical little bit of theater.
Tradition dictates that the president and his press corps don formal attire and toast each other in the spirit of cocktail camaraderie, however fleeting.
Not this time.
President Trump was sitting on a podium at the Washington Hilton with his wife, Melania, when gunshots rang out and he and other senior administration officials were quickly evacuated.
Authorities said the suspect, 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen of Torrance, California, engaged in a gunfight with law enforcement and was tackled. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that preliminary findings indicate the suspect is targeting Trump administration officials.
The incident raised new questions about the continuity of the government and the measures taken to ensure the president’s safety. The president cannot afford to be confined to the White House — and President Trump knows that. White House aides said President Trump needs an aggressive campaign schedule if Republicans are to maintain a majority in Congress in November’s midterm elections.
But the more a president travels, the greater the risk of assassination. Four American presidents were killed while in office. As a 2024 candidate, Trump survived two attempts on his life.
Following President Trump are Vice President J.D. Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). Both were in the ballroom on Saturday. If all were killed, Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley of Iowa would be next in line. A spokeswoman for Mr. Grassley, 92, said he was at his home in New Hartford, Iowa, that night.
“We don’t want to change the way we do things too much, but we have to be realistic,” Graham said. “Venue is very important. When you hold an event outside of the Capitol or the White House, you should think about succession issues.”
“Look, this could have been much worse,” he added. “This guy was a lone wolf, and look how he was able to get in so perfectly armed. What if he had 10 people with him? What if there were 10 dedicated terrorists willing to die? It could have been a massacre.”
Trump administration officials say law enforcement officials are already discussing stricter procedures for future events the president may attend. Following the incident at the Hilton, President Trump said he hopes to hold a make-up dinner for the WHCA within the next month.
“If[the WHCA dinner]were to be rescheduled, it would either be moved to a different facility or the security procedures upon entry would be significantly different,” said a senior Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Intelligence Service, said in a prepared statement: “The key takeaway for future events is that we should expect reinforcement at all levels.”
The Hilton has been the venue for the WHCA Dinner for the past 50 years. If the situation continues, law enforcement could introduce new procedures, including bag checks, increased screening of guests and new restrictions on movement within hotels, officials said. Investigators believe Allen traveled to Washington by train and checked into a hotel as a guest.
William Barr, a former attorney general during Trump’s first term, contrasted the WHCA dinner with the president’s State of the Union address, which was held at the Capitol under maximum security. Still, presidential cabinet members traditionally stay away. He is the “designated survivor” in case there is a massacre inside the chamber.
“The State of the Union carries the risk of concentrated leadership, but at least it will take place in a government facility with more comprehensive security, not a public hotel with hundreds of unsupervised people in close proximity,” Barr, who attended past WHCA dinners, told NBC News.
Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who also attended the dinner and was evacuated by security, said in an interview that “you probably wouldn’t be able to do that in an open venue like a hotel, where there are so many potential successors.”
In a polarized political climate, President Trump and future presidents may need to balance personal safety with the need for travel and accessibility for ordinary Americans. Banquet halls may be safe, but the argument that a sitting president needs to be kept alive seems dubious, critics say.
“This argument is absurd. No one would expect the president to be locked in a bunker at every event,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-chair of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, which sued to cancel the ballroom funding agreement.
