WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is using Saturday’s firing at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to pressure preservationists to withdraw a lawsuit over his planned $400 million ballroom on the site of the former East Wing of the White House.
“It’s time to build the ballroom,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told X on Sunday, posting a letter to Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate giving the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has filed a lawsuit to stop construction, until 9 a.m. Monday to drop its lawsuit.
If it doesn’t, Shumate wrote, the government “in light of last night’s extraordinary events,” calling the Washington Hilton “demonstrably unsafe” for events with the president “presents extraordinary security challenges for the Secret Service because of its size.”
The White House ballroom, Shumate wrote, “will ensure the safety and security of the President for decades to come and prevent future assassination attempts on the President at the Washington Hilton.”
Asked about the letter, Elliott Carter, a spokesman for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said Sunday that the group would review it with legal counsel.
The conservation group filed the lawsuit in December, a week after the White House demolished the East Wing to make way for the Trump Ballroom, which would fit 999 people. Trump has said the project was financed by private donations, even though public money was paid for the construction of the bunker and the security upgrades.
A crowd of 2,300 attended Saturday night’s event at the Hilton, home to one of the largest rooms in Washington for the event. It packs attendees into round tables whose chairs are back-to-back, and room to move around is tight. The dinner is not a White House event — it’s run by the White House Correspondents’ Association, a nonprofit organization of journalists from media outlets that cover the president.
Republicans have stepped up their push for the White House ballroom
For months, Trump has mentioned the ballroom project at nearly every opportunity, often talking about his desire to build the space during events on issues or other topics. Addressing tuxedo- and ball-gown-clad reporters who traveled from the Washington Hilton to the White House for Saturday night’s news conference, Trump called for tighter security measures and pointed to the incident as a reason why his ballroom was needed.
Since the shooting, Trump, Blanche and many supporters of the administration have taken the opportunity to push for the project on social media platforms and news programs. Republican Ohio Representative Jim Jordan said he agrees “100%” with Trump on the massive White House construction project, which Jordan said on Fox News Channel “will obviously be a much safer place for these types of events.”
On Sunday Morning X, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he agreed with Trump that the White House ballroom is “a national security necessity” that would give the Secret Service “greater control over the security environment of future events with a very rigid facility.”
Some Democrats have also agreed. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who attended Saturday’s dinner, said the proposed White House space at the X “should be used precisely for events like this.” CNN later Sunday, Fetterman said that participants in Saturday’s event and Americans as a whole were in a “sensitive” position, partly because many in the line of presidential succession were present and could be harmed.
Fetterman replied, “I certainly hope so” when asked if the incident would spark more support for the White House project.
Gate crashers, party crashers, a plane — security breaches at the White House
While its grounds have been largely closed to the public for more than a century, dozens of incidents testify that even the White House complex is not impervious to intrusions.
There are many documented cases in which people have scaled security barriers around the White House. One of them, a distraught Army veteran armed with a knife, jumped a fence in 2014 and ran into the White House, entering the East Room before returning to a hallway on the state floor deep inside the mansion.
A Department of Homeland Security review of the matter determined that a lack of training, poor personnel decisions and communication problems contributed to the embarrassing failure that ultimately led to the Secret Service chief’s resignation.
In 1994, a pilot died when he crashed a small stealth plane on the South Lawn, hitting a tree and the corner of the first floor of a building. And in 2009, uninvited guests Tarek and Michael Salahi crashed through security checkpoints and met with President Barack Obama at a state dinner that sparked a security investigation.
How is the White House Ballroom project going?
In litigation since December, work is underway, although there have been hiccups recently.
Trump demolished the East Wing last fall to make way for a massive ballroom on the site. In its lawsuit, the National Trust for Historic Preservation argued that Trump had overstepped its authority by moving forward with the project without getting approval from key federal agencies and Congress.
Earlier this month, a federal appeals court allowed Trump to continue construction on the $400 million project, a day after a lower court judge blocked above-ground construction at the site and scheduled a June 5 hearing to review the case. US District Judge Richard Lyon’s ruling halted above-ground construction of the 90,000-square-foot (8,400 sq m) ballroom addition, while allowing underground work to continue only on bunkers and other “national security facilities”.
On Fox News Channel on Sunday, Trump predicted that, by the end of his current term, his project would be completed.
“In 28 years you’ll have something, you’ll have a ballroom, top of the line, security,” Trump said. “You won’t be a problem.”
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
