Justice Department cites dinner shooting to press preservationists to drop Trump ballroom suit
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is using the hack White House Correspondents’ Saturday Dinner Trying to pressure preservationists to drop their lawsuit over a planned $400 million ballroom in the former East Wing of the White House.
“It’s time to build the ballroom,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche bluntly stated on X on Sunday, posting a letter from Deputy Attorney General Brett Shumate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation: filed a lawsuit to prevent constructionuntil 9 a.m. Monday to dismiss the case.
If it does not do so, Shumate wrote, the government will ask a court to do so “in light of last night’s extraordinary events” and called the Washington Hilton, the site of Saturday’s gala, “clearly unsafe” for events with the president because its size poses extraordinary security challenges for the Secret Service.
Shumate wrote that the White House ballroom “will ensure the safety and security of the President for decades to come and will prevent future assassination attempts on the President at the Washington Hilton.”
Asked about the letter, National Trust for Historic Preservation spokesman Elliot Carter said Sunday that the group would review the letter with legal counsel.
The watchdog group filed the lawsuit in December, a week after the White House finished its work. Demolition of the East Wing To make room for the ballroom, which Trump said could fit 999 people. Trump says that although public money was spent on shelter construction and security improvements, the project was funded by private donations.
A crowd of 2,300 people attended Saturday night’s event at the Hilton, which had one of the few rooms in Washington large enough for the event. Participants gather at round tables with chairs back to back and little room for movement. The dinner is not a White House event; It is run by the White House Correspondents’ Association, a nonprofit organization of journalists at media outlets that cover the president.
Republicans step up pressure for White House ballroom
For months, Trump talked about the ballroom project at almost every opportunity, often talking about the lawsuit or his desire to build the space on a host of other topics during events. Addressing tuxedo- and ballgown-clad reporters who flocked to the White House from the Washington Hilton for a news conference Saturday night, Trump called for tighter security measures and pointed to the incident as one reason the ballroom was needed.
Following the shooting, Trump, Blanche and some of the administration’s supporters took the opportunity to promote the project through social media platforms and news programs. Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said he agrees “100%” with Trump on the massive White House construction project. Jordan said on Fox News Channel that “it would obviously be a much safer place for these types of events.”
On Sunday morning at
Even some Democrats agreed. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who attended Saturday’s dinner, said the proposed White House site in X should be used “for events exactly like this.” Fetterman said on CNN later Sunday that attendees and Americans in general were in a “vulnerable” position during Saturday’s event, in part because so many people in the presidential line of succession were there and could be harmed.
“I certainly hope so,” Fetterman said when asked if the event would generate more support for the White House project.
Door busters, party crashers, a plane – Security breaches at the White House
Dozens of incidents are proof that not even the White House complex is impervious to intrusion, as its grounds have been largely closed to the public for more than a century.
There have been numerous documented incidents of people breaching security barriers around the White House. One of them is a disturbed army veteran carrying a knife. I jumped the fence In 2014, he rushed to the White House and made his way to the East Room before returning to the corridor on the State Floor deep inside the mansion.
The Department of Homeland Security’s review of the case determined that a lack of training, poor personnel decisions and communication problems contributed to the embarrassing failure that ultimately led to the resignation of the Secret Service chief.
In 1994, a pilot died when he crashed a stolen small plane onto the South Lawn, crashing into a tree and the first-floor corner of the building. And in 2009, intruders Tareq and Michaele Salahi attended a state dinner, passed security checkpoints and encountered President Barack Obama in an incident that sparked security investigations.
How’s the White House ballroom project going?
In the case, which has been ongoing since December, the work continues, although there have been disruptions recently.
Trump destroyed the East Wing We agreed last fall to build a huge ballroom in that space. In the case he filed, National Trust for Historic Preservation He argued that Trump overstepped his authority by moving forward with the project without first obtaining approval from key federal agencies and Congress.
Earlier this month a federal appeals court Trump allowed construction of $400 million project to go ahead, ruling a day later A lower court judge continued to block above-ground construction site, and a hearing is scheduled for June 5 to review the case. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon’s ruling had blocked above-ground construction of the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom addition, while also allowing only underground work to continue on the bunker and other “national security facilities” in the area.
On Fox News Channel on Sunday, Trump predicted his project would be completed by the end of his current term.
“In the year 28, you’re going to have something, you’re going to have a ballroom, you’re going to have top-notch security,” Trump said. “You won’t have any problems.”
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at: http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
