Trump White House ballroom won’t get WHCD buy-in, critics say
A media member raises his hand for a question as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while holding up footage of the planned White House ballroom aboard Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., March 29, 2026.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
President Donald Trump, top officials in his administration and many MAGA figures are pushing strongly to build a ballroom at the White House, citing a shooting incident just outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner that led to his evacuation from the event at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night.
Trump and his supporters say building the controversial and legally troubled $400 million grand ballroom is essential to protecting himself and future presidents from assassination attacks and other security threats.
But critics argue that a ballroom at the White House is no acceptable substitute for a dedicated venue for civic events, and presidents will undoubtedly travel the country and the world making public appearances at many venues.
Despite this initial claim, the Ministry of Justice In a letter on Sunday He suggested this to a lawyer whose client opposed the construction of the ballroom: White House Correspondents’ Association Once built, he can have his annual dinner in the ballroom.
“Once the White House ballroom is completed, President Trump and his successors will no longer need to travel beyond the security of the White House perimeter to attend large gatherings at the Washington Hilton,” Deputy Attorney General Brett Shumate wrote Gregory Craig, who represents the National Trust for Historic Preservation in a lawsuit seeking to block the ballroom from being built without Congressional authorization.
Cranes look toward the White House as construction continues on a new ballroom expansion following the demolition of the East Wing on April 11, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Take Drago | Getty Images
But critics say Trump and his allies are cynically strengthening their arguments against the ballroom by referencing Saturday’s incident.
They also say there’s good reason to believe he and any future president won’t stop attending events outside the White House even if the ballroom is built.
They also scoff at the idea that the WHCA, an independent association of journalists covering the White House, would agree to host the dinner at the White House if a harsh media critic like Trump occupied the Oval Office.
WHCA president and CBS correspondent Weijia Jiang did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
However Kelly McBridesenior vice president and president of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership
“There’s no way they could do that,” he said when asked about the idea of WHCA, a nonprofit organization that promotes journalism ethics and advancement, hosting the dinner at the White House.
Criticizing the WHCA’s dinner, McBride described it in an article published April 16 as “a red carpet bash with the powerful resources they cover” and said it was “never a good idea.”
“The yearly rationalization that partying with the people involved is just an act of courtesy does not dispel the public’s doubts about our independence,” McBride wrote.
“I can’t imagine a world where even the people who thought about saving this dinner and saving this invitation for the president thought it was a good idea to move it to a venue owned and operated by the White House,” McBride said in an interview with CNBC.
“It solves the security problem, but it creates a bigger problem for journalists, right? They now owe the White House for this event,” he said.
“They are losing their independence,” McBride said. “If the original optics were bad, keeping it in a ballroom controlled by the White House is simply unacceptable.”
He said he wasn’t surprised that Trump and his administration were so quick to use the WHCD attack as an argument in favor of the ballroom.
“Trump has always been a magnificent opportunist,” he said.
It is also far from certain whether other non-media groups not affiliated with the U.S. government would agree to hold signature events that might include the presence of a president in a ballroom under that president’s control.
National Prayer Breakfast was also held at Hilton
Since the National Prayer Breakfast began in 1953, every American president has participated in it, including Trump, who gave a speech in February touting his administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration at the event attended by many members of Congress.
This breakfast was held at the Washington Hilton, where it has been since the 1980s and the same venue as Saturday’s WHCD event. The Hilton has a 30,000-square-foot ballroom, one of the largest in Washington.
Republican Rep. Ben Cline of Virginia, who co-chairs the Prayer Breakfast, told CNBC on Tuesday that the event will be held at the Hilton next year.
“It was an honor to host the event again this year at the Washington Hilton, and safety will be our top priority when we host it there again,” Cline said.
“As I support the construction of the new White House Ballroom, I am confident in the Secret Service’s ability to secure and protect the President.”
Virginia Canter, general counsel and director of ethics and anticorruption Democracy Defenders Fund“It’s obscene that they would use a potentially tragic event to justify building a gilded ballroom for this person,” said , an advocacy group that has supported numerous legal challenges to Trump policies.
“I don’t think they got hit twice before trying to legitimize the ballroom,” Canter said.
“We’re saying presidents will only hold ballroom events? Are we going to have to build another ballroom at Mar-a-Lago?” Canter asked, referring to Trump’s residence and private club in Palm Beach, Florida.
In addition to being a government job, the president’s position “is also political,” Canter said.
He said he “needs to appear in public” at events outside the confines of the White House.
Trump and other presidents tour the country and the world
Canter said Trump’s security claims about the ballroom were belied by events he traveled to around the country, including rallies.
“I mean, it’s crazy. He goes golfing every weekend,” he said.
Trump was the target of an attack On September 15, 2024, the assassination attempt was made while he was playing golf at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. A Secret Service agent thwarted the attempt.
“The ballroom is a vanity project; it is not a national security project,” Canter said. “The ballroom is being created because he wants to make his mark on the White House.”
“The solution is not to have a ballroom every time there is a security incident.”
Construction cranes are seen from the Washington Monument in the former East Wing of the White House on April 17, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Anna Money Maker | Getty Images
Canter noted that if Trump or other presidents insist on holding events to which they are invited in the ballroom, “That would give him control over the invitation list.”
He said he expected this would not be the starting point for the White House Correspondents’ Association.
“As President Trump has repeatedly said, the White House is long overdue for a safe and secure facility that can host large public gatherings without endangering the safety of the President and all staff, guests and visitors,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement Tuesday when asked about criticism of the ballroom. he said.
“The Ballroom has been carefully designed with advanced security features, including bulletproof glass, drone detection technologies, bullet-resistant materials, and a host of other national security functions that will make it the safest ballroom anywhere in the world,” Ingle said.
“There’s a pretty legitimate case that there needs to be a larger entertainment area at the White House,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, vice president of policy and government affairs for the Project on Government Oversight, another advocacy group.
“I don’t think it’s a completely ridiculous idea,” Hedtler-Gaudette said, noting that the White House currently erects a tent on the lawn when it hosts large events such as dinners.
But Hedtler-Gaudette objected to Trump’s ballroom project being undertaken without the authorization of Congress, without input from other government agencies that would normally contribute to the design and scope of such a building, and with private funds from companies that do business with the federal government and are subject to its regulatory oversight.
He also noted Trump’s reference to the ballroom at a White House news conference shortly after he was evacuated following the Hilton shooting on Saturday, and that the incident was widely used as an argument for the ballroom by his supporters on social media on Sunday.
“When it happens this quickly and this universally, it seems like an excuse,” Hedtler-Gaudette said.
He said the shooting that led to the arrest of a California man on charges of trying to assassinate Trump and other charges was “very serious.”
Hedtler-Gaudette said “it seems pretty disgusting to me to try to take advantage of that” at a time when the ballroom is facing legal backlash and is not supported by the majority of the public.
He was skeptical that the ballroom, if built as Trump suggested, would be used frequently by outside groups.
“How likely is it that the White House will allow a trade association to be leased? [the ballroom] Are you hosting a dinner?,” Hedtler-Gaudette asked.
“I would imagine it would be some kind of broader MAGA ecosystem,” he said, referring to groups that might be inclined to use the ballroom while Trump is in office, a reference to the president’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
The Justice Department, which is defending Trump in the lawsuit against the ballroom, doubled down on its attack on the National Trust for Historic Preservation — calling the group “FAKE” — in a court filing Monday night, arguing that a federal judge had struck down a preliminary injunction that would have blocked construction.
“Saturday’s near-miss — which marks the third assassination attempt on President Trump since 2024 — confirms what should already be obvious,” Acting Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote.
“Presidents need a safe space for large events, and that does not currently exist in Washington, D.C., and this Court’s decision to halt this Project cannot defensibly proceed in the interest of the safety of President Trump, future Presidents and their families, Cabinets, and staff,” Blanche wrote. he wrote.
