Trump claims gala shooting gives urgency to White House ballroom plan | White House correspondents’ dinner shooting
After the incident on Saturday night, Donald Trump claimed that the shooting at the Washington Hilton hotel had given new urgency to the project to build a 1,000-seat ballroom at the White House.
The president made the case for the controversial ballroom initiative at a White House news conference on Saturday and in a social media post on Sunday following the arrest of an armed gunman who ran toward the ballroom of the Hilton, where Trump was attending the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
The $400 million construction project to build a giant event space at the White House began when Trump demolished the east wing last October without waiting for full regulatory approval to proceed. Legal challenges followed, as did controversy over the financing of the massive ballroom. be bigger More than the core of the White House.
“What happened last night is why our great Military, our Secret Service, our Law Enforcement, and for different reasons every President for the last 150 years have DEMANDED a large, safe and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUND OF THE WHITE HOUSE,” Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday morning.
He said the shooting incident, which sent Trump and senior management out of the Hilton hotel complex and hundreds of guests hiding for cover, “would never have happened in the Military Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House.”
Trump noted the current security at the White House, “the most secure building in the world,” and that “every top-tier security feature there is” is planned for the ballroom. “Also, there are no rooms at the top where people without security can enter,” he added, referring to the event taking place at a mainstream hotel.
Trump’s comments marked the second time in just over 12 hours that he mentioned the White House ballroom project in connection with the shooting.
“I didn’t want to say this,” Trump said at a news conference Saturday after returning to the White House from the press dinner, “but that’s why we need to have all the bells and whistles of what we’re planning in the White House. It’s actually a bigger room and a lot safer. It has drones and bulletproof glass in it.”
Trump has survived two previous assassination attempts, both during the 2024 election campaign. After the latest incident, Trump said in the White House briefing room that this fear would not affect the course of his life.
“I like not to think about it,” he said. “You know, I lead a pretty normal life, considering it’s a dangerous life. I think I’m coping with it—as one can.”
“To be honest, I’m not an ordinary person,” he added. But he also acknowledged that “it’s always shocking when something like this happens” and admitted it was “a lot.” unexpected”.
He told Weijia Jiang, the CBS News correspondent and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association who was seated to his left at the dinner, that she had made “a great job. What a great evening.”
Trump said he thought the sound, which later turned out to be a gunshot, “was a tray falling on the floor. I heard it many times, it was pretty loud and it was coming from quite a distance.”
Melania Trump said that “I think she was very aware of what was going on. I think she knew right away what was happening. She was like, ‘That’s a bad sound.'” Trump said that “it was a pretty traumatic experience for her.”
Trump was expected to anger the attending press members with what he said would be the “most inappropriate speech ever made” in his after-dinner speech. Even being invited to the dinner was controversial after he had been called the “enemy of the people” by the US media for several years. He is repeatedly suing various media outlets, threatening publishers over their licenses and stepping up his attacks on some journalists who ask him awkward questions.
On Saturday night, he suddenly thanked the assembled reporters at a White House press conference; most were still wearing the evening clothes they had worn for dinner. He praised the “very responsible” coverage of the unfolding drama and said he would probably give a different speech than he had planned on Saturday night when the press dinner was rescheduled.
Later on Sunday, Trump said lawsuits to stop construction of the White House ballroom “must be dropped immediately,” adding: “Nothing should be allowed to interfere with its construction, which is on budget and substantially ahead of schedule.”
That view was supported by at least one moderate Democrat, Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman.
“This venue was not built to host an event involving the U.S. government line of succession.” Fetterman posted this on XReferring to the Washington Hilton. “After witnessing last night, drop the TDS (‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’) and build the White House ballroom for events exactly like this,” he said.
