US Politics
Why Trump, MAGA and Fetterman say correspondents’ dinner shooting seals deal for $400M White House ballroom
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The president of the United States, his MAGA allies, and even a Senate Democrat pressed the case for his $400 million White House ballroom construction in the hours after a shooting at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner left nearly the entire Cabinet and DC press corps ducking for cover minutes into the event.
For months, the construction of President Donald Trump’s desired White House ballroom has made headlines and even seemed to consume the president’s attention during unrelated events, where Trump will often go on diatribes about the construction process or building plans. A federal judge halted the project earlier this month, while allowing construction of a secure bunker on the White House complex to continue.
Trump had the residence’s iconic East Wing demolished without warning to make room for the structure.
But Saturday evening’s chaos added a new twinge of urgency to the president’s statements and elicited a wave of new calls for the event space’s construction on the White House’s grounds from supporters of the president, many of whom had previously ignored or shied away from defending what Democrats call a grift-filled vanity project.
“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,” Trump wrote early Sunday morning in a Truth Social post.
“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,” Trump continued.
His remarks joined a chorus of other Republicans online who wrote and spoke favorably about the project after the shooting, including Florida Rep. Randy Fine, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton, “Libs of TikTok” influencer Chaya Raichik, commentator Jack Posobiec and more.
“I don’t want to hear one more f***ing criticism of Trump’s new ballroom at the White House,” wrote Meghan McCain, a conservative former co-host of The View and an occasional critic of Trump’s.
The most surprising support for the project, however, came from a Democratic senator. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was one of a number of members of Congress who attended Saturday evening’s dinner and was seen being escorted out after the shooting and the president’s own departure.
On Sunday, Fetterman, who has been criticized by fellow Democrats for his support of Trump’s war in Iran, wrote that Democrats should “drop the [Trump Derangement Syndrome]” and join Republicans in supporting the construction of the ballroom at the White House for security reasons.
“That venue wasn’t built to accommodate an event with the line of succession for the U.S. government. After witnessing last night, drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom for events exactly like these,” wrote the senator on X.
Others criticized the event itself, arguing that security was lax and unprepared for the number of attendees — a size similar to previous years’ gatherings.
Security for Saturday’s dinner was managed by the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies, and guests were required to walk through a metal detector to reach the main area of the venue, locatd in the basement-level event spaces of the Washington Hilton. Sometimes mocked by attendees (in generally good faith), the Hilton has hosted the event for years.
Some claimed they were not asked to show tickets to enter the event, though The Independent was repeatedly asked to show a ticket at several security checkpoints throughout the hotel and the surrounding blocks of Washington, D.C.
Trump announced plans to construct the ballroom in July of 2025, telling reporters at the time that the structure would cost $200 million and would be funded entirely through private donations. Those costs ballooned to $400 million in the months that followed, and the president’s allies established a nonprofit, the Trust for the National Mall, to funnel donations to the project and allow some donors to retain public anonymity.
Trump has claimed the project is already fully funded, and demolition of the East Wing to prepare for its construction began in October.
The shooting Saturday evening may have the effect of jump-starting the project, as the court order halting progress was issued by a judge who ruled that the project did not qualify as a necessary measure to improve security at the White House, which allows the administration to go around the typical requirements to acquire funding and authorization from Congress.