President Donald Trump’s immediate response to an armed gunman attempting to breach one of Washington’s most widely attended annual gatherings: Build the White House ballroom.
Two hours after the shooting, Trump, still dressed in his tuxedo and standing alongside multiple members of his Cabinet in the White House press briefing room, said his plans for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom, which is currently tied up in litigation, must move forward.
“It’s drone-proof, it’s bulletproof glass. We need the ballroom,” Trump said. “That’s why [the] Secret Service, that’s why the military are demanding it.”
Presidents have safely attended dinners, fundraisers and prayer breakfasts at the Washington Hilton for six decades, dating back to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Even after being shot while exiting the hotel in 1981, President Ronald Reagan returned to the hotel months later.
But according to Trump, building his ballroom is the panacea for those wanting to do him, or any president, harm.
But according to Trump, building his ballroom is the panacea for those wanting to do him, or any president, harm.
Trump repeatedly claimed in the hours after the shooting — with a preliminary sense that he was a target — that the $400 million ballroom, propped up by largely undisclosed donations, would solve all security problems. And when pressed about the performance of Secret Service, the scourge of political violence, or the suspect’s ability to cross state lines with guns, the administration’s answer remained the same: The ballroom is the fix and nothing else needs to change.
“This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House,” Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday morning.
To be clear, the White House Correspondents’ Association sponsors the dinner — and even if construction of the ballroom was complete, the annual dinner featuring the nation’s top journalists and senior administration officials would likely not be held at the White House, anyway. The president is an invitee, not the host of the annual dinner. Not to mention it would be a conflict of interest for such an event to be held at the White House.
Following the president’s lead, several top administration officials and Republicans – plus at least one Democratic senator, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — echoed Trump’s call for the ballroom to be constructed unimpeded.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said that although the evidence is preliminary, officials believe Trump and administration officials were “likely” the targets of the suspect. In response, the Justice Department demanded the National Trust for Historic Preservation drop its lawsuit against the construction of the ballroom.
“When the White House ballroom is complete, President Trump and his successors will no longer need to venture beyond the safety of the White House perimeter to attend large gatherings at the Washington Hilton ballroom” Blanche asserted in a letter Sunday. Blanche added that the ballroom would “ensure the safety and security of the President for decades to come.”
Asked how the administration could deem any future event held outside of the White House secure enough for the president, the White House didn’t respond to MS NOW.
By that logic, no presidential events are secure enough to be held outside of the White House, former senior FBI and Secret Service agents argued to MS NOW.
Christopher O’Leary, a former FBI special agent and MS NOW national security analyst, who worked in counterterrorism, said Trump appeared to be using Saturday’s shooting to get the White House ballroom built without addressing the real problem.
“It’s ridiculous,” O’Leary said. “It’s not a logical or reasonable solution to the trending rise in political violence. They should look at factors that are creating political violence.”
“Sitting behind the castle walls is not the solution. It’s only going to distance the government from the people, and the people are supposed to have access to their representatives,” O’Leary said, adding that no matter where the president holds an event, “there’s always going to be a vulnerability.”
Sitting behind the castle walls is not the solution. It’s only going to distance the government from the people, and the people are supposed to have access to their representatives.”
Christopher O’Leary, a former FBI special agent
Despite being the subject of two previous assassination attempts — one in Butler, Pennsylvnia., at a 2024 campaign rally, in which the FBI says a bullet, or fragment of a bullet grazed his ear, and a second one at his Florida golf course months later — Trump frequently attends events outside the White House complex, including at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and recently in Arizona and Nevada.
“Are you going to have every single event at the White House?” a former senior Secret Service agent told MS NOW. “The president needs to be out among the people, and that’s our job to try to get ‘em to do that.”
Nonetheless, the incident has raised concerns about the security surrounding the Saturday event and whether protocols were as heightened as they could have been for Trump’s first time in attendance at the annual press dinner. The lower-level security status assigned to the event is also being questioned, given the number of Cabinet officials present in a single room as a would-be assassin tried to breach it.
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Trump himself provided inconsistent messages around the security of the Washington Hilton, on one hand claiming the hotel is “not a particularly secure building,” but also stating everything worked as intended. Trump said the assailant “didn’t even get close to getting to those doors” of the ballroom where he and his Cabinet dined with the press. And his acting attorney general, Blanche, called it a “narrow miss” when arguing for the ballroom’s construction but also “a massive security success story.”
Following the incident, Trump said that he would attend an event within 30 days to replace the canceled dinner. He told CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday evening that a similar event could be held with a “bigger perimeter.”
Blanche also quickly rejected questions about security protocol or how the suspect, Cole Thomas Allen, was able to cross state lines with guns by train.
“This isn’t about, in my mind, changing the law or making the laws more restrictive around a possession of firearms,” Blanche told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
Pressed by anchor Margaret Brennan about the ability to cross state lines by train without going through airport-like security or having to declare a firearm, Blanche said, “I don’t think that’s something that we should be focused on right now in any way, shape or form.”
Rob D’Amico, a former FBI agent and MS NOW analyst, said security must be re-evaluated and urged the Secret Service to rethink its procedures, including the use of physical barriers at events like the correspondents’ dinner.
“The Secret Service needs to use this as an awakening, saying, ‘Look, we have to change the way we’re doing things,’” D’Amico said on MS NOW, calling it “problematic” that no such discussions appeared to be taking place.
Still, the message from MAGA was dramatically different. In less than 24 hours, in unison, Trump, MAGA influencers and GOP lawmakers blanketed social media with one message: The country needs Trump’s ballroom.
“Maybe the haters can begin by supporting the WH much larger and more secure ballroom,” said Trump loyalist Rudy Giuliani in a post on X. “Thank God President Trump is building a ballroom at the White House,” wrote conservative political activist Jack Posobiec on X. Libs of TikTok echoed the sentiment, posting, “THIS IS WHY WE NEED TRUMP’S BALLROOM.”
“But, you know, I would just say this is one of those other reasons why we need a ballroom at the White House,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., told MS NOW after the incident.
The courts are allowing the construction of an improved and modernized underground military bunker at the White House to proceed, citing national security needs. It is the ballroom that Trump wants to build on top that is currently tied up in litigation, with construction allowed for the time being.
When the White House first announced demolition of the East Wing to make way for construction of the massive ballroom, officials did not mention security needs at all. It wasn’t until the administration faced a lawsuit that it began arguing there were “national security” reasons for the ballroom’s construction.
“And the location’s on the White House grounds, which is the most secure ground, probably in the world, including the fencing, including everything else,” Trump told FOX News on Sunday. “The president doesn’t have to leave the premises.”
Mychael Schnell and Erum Salam contributed to this report.
Laura Barrón-López covers the White House for MS NOW.
Lindsey Pipia
Lindsey Pipia is a White House producer for MS NOW.