Trump uses the Correspondents' dinner shooting to renew his White House ballroom push

Donald TrumpTrump uses the Correspondents' dinner shooting to renew his White House ballroom pushTrump and his allies said the incident shows the necessity of his $400 million ballroom, even though it's far from certain that the annual dinner honoring the media would be held there.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Add NBC News to GoogleTrump renews calls for new White House ballroom after shooting01:05Get more newsLiveonShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 26, 2026, 8:24 PM EDTBy Peter NicholasWASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, who was hustled out of a hotel ballroom Saturday night when a suspected gunman dashed through a security checkpoint, is seizing on the incident to gin up support for a White House ballroom that has faced legal challenges that threaten to shut down the project.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Trump has made the argument in the hours after the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner that the nation needs a fortified ballroom on White House grounds so that the president and government officials are not in peril.After laying out the security vulnerabilities of a busy hotel, Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday that the 90,000-square-foot ballroom he is building where the East Wing once stood is “really what you need.”He added that the ballroom was “designed in conjunction with the military and in conjunction with the Secret Service. It’s got every single bell and whistle you can possibly have for security and safety.”In a social media post Sunday morning, Trump added, "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!"FORSUBSCRIBERS00:0000:00We took a White House garden tour that shows Trump’s construction01:44A federal judge has issued repeated orders blocking construction of the ballroom, holding that Trump exceeded his...