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Washington: The Trump administration is using the weekend’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner to pressure opponents of the president’s planned ballroom to drop their legal challenge on national security grounds.
The move comes amid widespread concerns about security shortcomings at the Washington Hilton hotel, where dozens of senior Trump administration officials were present, including President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and many cabinet members.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation successfully halted progress on the $US400 million ($560 million) ballroom after a judge ruled Trump must obtain congressional approval to build the 1000-capacity venue on White House grounds. Underground parts of the project can continue to be built.
On Sunday (Washington time), acting attorney-general Todd Blanche made public a letter he sent to a lawyer representing the National Trust, threatening to seek the dissolution of the current injunction if the Trust does not voluntarily withdraw its lawsuit by 9am Monday.
“Yesterday’s assassination attempt on President Trump proves, yet again, that the White House ballroom is essential for the safety and security of the President, his family, his cabinet and his staff,” Blanche wrote.
He noted that when the ballroom was complete, Trump and his successors “will no longer need to venture beyond the safety of the White House perimeter” to attend large gatherings, such as those at the Hilton.
“Put simply, your lawsuit puts the lives of the president, his family and his staff at grave risk,” Blanche said. “I hope yesterday’s narrow miss will help you finally realise the folly of a lawsuit that literally serves no purpose except to stop President Trump no matter what. Enough is enough.”
The National Trust for Historic Preservation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit was technically brought on behalf of one of the Trust’s board members, architectural historian Alison Hoagland, who claims the ballroom would infringe on the quality of her walks and views of the city.
In a post on X, Blanche said: “This lawsuit is on behalf of a single person who walks in the vicinity of the White House once a month and expects to dislike the East Wing’s new design. The passing aesthetic gripe of a single person cannot possibly justify delaying the construction of a secure facility for the president to do his job.”
Trump was not harmed in the shooting and was evacuated along with other dignitaries. The shooter – alleged to be 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen from California – was taken down by Secret Service agents after he ran through a security checkpoint inside the hotel. He did not make it to the stairwell leading down to the ballroom on a lower level.
However, concerns have been raised by dinner attendees – politicians and journalists alike – about security procedures at the venue. Although the hotel was closed to the public earlier in the afternoon, attendees were only required to show a paper invitation to the dinner to reach the security checkpoint inside.
Allen was reportedly staying at the hotel after travelling to Washington by train. He ran through the security checkpoint just after 8.30pm (Washington time), by which time Trump was inside the ballroom, and no additional guests were allowed to enter the secured area.
Republican congressman Michael McCaul, a former prosecutor who worked in counter-terrorism and national security, attended the dinner as a guest of Bloomberg and told the network he thought the outer perimeter was “very free access” for a function with such high-profile attendees.
“It’s an open hotel. I think that was part of the risk involved here if you had to analyse it. It’s very difficult to harden that environment,” he said.
McCaul noted Vance and House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson were also present at the dinner – first and second in line to the presidency, respectively.
“If a bomb had gone off or something more dramatic, it would fall to [Iowa senator] Chuck Grassley, amazingly,” he said. Grassley, the president pro tempore of the US Senate, is 92.
Trump dismissed criticism of the security setup, saying the agents involved did an outstanding job, and noting the would-be assailant did not get near the ballroom itself.
But he also used the incident to make the case for his beloved White House ballroom, saying the shooting would never have happened on White House grounds.
“It cannot be built fast enough!” Trump said on Truth Social.
“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.
“The ridiculous Ballroom lawsuit, brought by a woman walking her dog, who has absolutely No Standing to bring such a suit, must be dropped, immediately. Nothing should be allowed to interfere with its construction, which is on budget and substantially ahead of schedule!!!”
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