The shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night has shifted the dialogue regarding President Trump’s ballroom construction project at the White House.
On the evening of April 25, gunshots were fired near the main security screening area at the Washington Hilton during the annual dinner. Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and members of the Cabinet were quickly evacuated off stage by the Secret Service, and one police officer was hit during the shooting but survived thanks to a bulletproof vest, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Shortly after the shooting, Trump delivered a speech connecting the incident to his $400 million ballroom project. This was the same project he had previously announced while aboard Air Force One last month, during which he claimed that the military was constructing a massive underground complex beneath the proposed structure, DX reported.
On Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social, writing: “This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. 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.”
Build the White House Ballroom. pic.twitter.com/3CBVZtf4cK
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 26, 2026
“Nothing should be allowed to interfere with its construction, which is on budget and substantially ahead of schedule!!!” the President added.
It’s time to build the ballroom. pic.twitter.com/cUMkVpehGY
— Acting AG Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) April 26, 2026
Earlier this year, Trump told reporters that the ballroom would feature bulletproof glass and a roof designed to withstand drone attacks, emphasizing that these measures reflect the reality of modern security threats. He also pointed out that the Washington Hilton was not very secure, citing this as an additional reason to construct the new facility.
Trump’s security argument found an unlikely ally in Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. “That venue wasn’t built to accommodate an event with the line of succession for the U.S. government,” Fetterman wrote on X. “After witnessing last night, drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom for events exactly like these.”
In a following interview with CBS, Trump pushed for the dinner to be rescheduled quickly and with tighter security. “I hope we’re going to do it again,” he said. “We should do it within 30 days, and they’ll have even more security, and they’ll have bigger perimeter security.”
Trump’s team sent a letter to the National Trust for Historic Preservation (the group suing to stop the ballroom project), arguing that the lawsuit is pointless and that blocking construction is putting Trump and others at risk. They demanded that the group drop the case by Monday morning or face a motion to dismiss it.
“If your client does not dismiss the lawsuit by 9:00 AM on Monday, the government will move to dissolve the injunction and dismiss the case in light of last night’s extraordinary events,” per the letter.
That deadline has since passed.
The legal battle has been ongoing for some time. As The Dallas Express has previously reported, Judge Richard Leon called the demolition of the East Wing “brazen” earlier this year, and even suggested he might block the whole project.
For Trump, the ballroom has never really been about looks. As he said on Air Force One in March, the real project is the underground military complex being built underneath it. He even called the ballroom itself “just a shed” for what’s going on below ground.
Above-ground construction was already expected to begin this month. If Trump has his way, no lawsuit – and no shooting – will slow it down.
The suspect in Saturday’s shooting was identified as Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California. As of April 27, 2026, he is in federal custody and scheduled to appear in court today for arraignment on federal charges.
