Trump uses shooting at WH Correspondents’ Dinner to justify $400 million White House ballroom

“This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House,” Trump wrote on Truth Social hours after the Saturday night shooting incident.

After Saturday night’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, President Donald Trump suggested the potentially deadly incident is justification for the building of his $400 million White House ballroom.

“I didn’t want to say this, but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House. It’s actually a larger room, and it’s a much more secure…it’s drone-proof. It’s bulletproof glass, we need the ballroom,” Trump told reporters approximately an hour and a half after 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen reportedly ran past a Secret Service security checkpoint and fired shots at the Washington Hilton Hotel.

“That’s why Secret Service, that’s why the military are demanding it,” Trump said of the ballroom, which is privately funded by secretive donors. “They’ve wanted the ballroom for 150 years for lots of different reasons. But today’s a little bit different because today we need levels of security that probably nobody’s ever seen before.”

Though President Trump was not in imminent danger due to where the shooting suspect was apprehended, Saturday’s shooting incident marked the third attempt on Trump’s life. Federal officials identified a manifesto authored by Allen, a resident of Torrance, California, indicating he was targeting the president and Trump administration officials. However, his motive remains under investigation.

On Sunday morning, Trump again used the WHCD shooting incident to make the case for his pricey ballroom in a Truth Social post.

“What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE. This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House,” Trump wrote. “It cannot be built fast enough! While beautiful, it has every highest level security feature there is plus, there are no rooms sitting on top for unsecured people to pour in, and is inside the gates of the most secure building in the World, The White House.”

Despite a federal district judge in the District of Columbia initially ruling in March that construction of the ballroom be halted due to a lack of congressional approval and proper procedures, the underground and above-ground portions were allowed to resume following a stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals. The appeals court ruled in April that the Trump administration’s argument that the ballroom is vital for national security purposes should be considered.

The construction of Trump’s ballroom immediately ignited outrage from preservationists and Democrats after the president, in October 2025, ordered the demolition of the White House East Wing, which had stood on White House grounds since 1902. Critics dismissed the project as a vanity project for Trump and criticized the lack of transparency about who is funding the ballroom and whether there is any pay-for-play activity involving its donors.

The next court hearing in the ballroom case is scheduled for June 5.

In his Sunday post, President Trump called the lawsuit challenging his ballroom “ridiculous” and said it has “absolutely No Standing.”

“Nothing should be allowed to interfere with…its construction, which is on budget and substantially ahead of schedule!!!” said Trump.

Saturday’s shooting also resulted in much speculation online that the entire incident was a hoax orchestrated by the White House, likely fueled by the president’s history of not telling the truth. The president’s rush to use the shooting to validate his multi-million-dollar ballroom is unlikely to quell those concerns.

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner has been held at the Washington Hilton Hotel since 1968. It’s worth noting that, while the dinner is in celebration of reporters who cover the White House, it is not an official White House event. It’s unclear if the White House Correspondents’ Association, which finances the dinner, would ever consider hosting the dinner on White House grounds.