The shooting at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner has now entered political debate, with U.S. President Donald Trump Pointing to this as new justification for his long-pending plan to build a $400 million ballroom at the White House.
Trump spoke a day after the incident, saying the incident proved that current event venues were not safe enough. “One good thing is now everyone knows how much it’s needed,” he said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.
The comments come as Trump has repeatedly pushed to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the White House, a project that has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum.
In subsequent interviews, including on CBS’s 60 Minutes, the president again said modern threats require purpose-built high-security sites.
“I have to say, this is not a safe ballroom. I’m building a safe ballroom, and one of the reasons I’m building it is because of what happened last night,” Trump said, adding, “It has bulletproof glass, it has all kinds of safety equipment that regular ballrooms don’t have.”
He further said, “That’s why the military wants it, that’s why the Secret Service wants it. What we’re doing is going to have a huge impact on solving this problem.”
The annual Correspondents’ Dinner, organized by the White House Correspondents’ Association and usually held outside the White House, most recently at the Washington Hilton, is considered a staple of Washington’s social and political calendar.
However, Trump’s proposed ballroom would serve a different purpose. If built, it would host state dinners and official White House events rather than rallies organized by outside groups such as the Journalists Association, a question the “60 Minutes” host did raise. To this, Trump responded: “You know that’s up to the president.”
Earlier, Trump expanded on his argument in an article published on Truth Social, writing: “What happened last night is exactly why our great military, the Secret Service, law enforcement and every president over the past 150 years has been asking for a large, safe and secure ballroom in the White House for different reasons.”
There is no evidence to support the claim that this need has existed for decades.
The ballroom project has already encountered legal and political resistance. A federal judge in Washington moved in late March to halt construction until Congress approved it.
The plan last year involved demolishing part of the East Wing, drawing criticism from Democrats and preservationists who said it changed the historic character of the White House.
Even so, the government is now trying to use the latest security scare to regain momentum.
On Sunday, the Justice Department wrote to the National Trust for Historic Preservation urging it to drop its legal challenge to the project.
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said in the letter that the proposed ballroom is critical to the president’s long-term security.
“The White House Ballroom will ensure the President’s security for decades to come and prevent future assassination attempts against the President at the Washington Hilton,” he wrote.
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