President Donald Trump used Saturday’s live shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to promote his ongoing White House construction project, arguing that a new ballroom being built there would offer a much safer venue for future events. He made the remarks during a news conference at the White House after the incident. Trump pointed to the security situation at the Washington Hilton, where the dinner was held, as proof that the new ballroom is needed.
“It’s not a particularly secure building, and I didn’t want to say this, but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House,” CNN quotes Trump said. “It’s actually a larger room, and it’s much more secure. It’s got drone proof. It’s bulletproof glass. We need the ballroom. That’s why Secret Service, that’s why the military are demanding it.”
On Saturday night, Trump and other senior U.S. officials were evacuated from the annual dinner after an unspecified threat was reported. A law enforcement official said a shooter had opened fire outside the ballroom where Trump and other guests were seated. There did not appear to be any injuries. According to PBS, the event was called off and will be rescheduled.
The shooting gave Trump a moment to push a construction project he says has been needed for decades
Trump has been building a 90,000-square-foot ballroom on top of the former East Wing of the White House. He has promoted it as a long-overdue upgrade that is bigger and more secure than existing venues, and one that the Secret Service and the military have been pushing for over the years. The shooting incident gave him a fresh reason to make that case publicly. Trump’s rushed exit from the Correspondents’ Dinner after shots were fired outside made the moment all the more dramatic.
“We’ve wanted the ballroom for 150 years for lots of different reasons, but today’s a little bit different, because today we need levels of security that probably nobody’s ever seen before,” Trump said. Saturday’s dinner was Trump’s first time attending the event as president.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is hosted by the organization of journalists who cover the president and his administration. It has long sparked debate about whether reporters and the officials they cover should be socializing together and setting aside their often adversarial relationship.
Trump’s attendance put his administration’s tense relationship with the press on full public display. Rather than using the moment to address the shooting or the evening’s events more broadly, Trump kept his focus on the ballroom project and its security features, framing the night’s chaos as a reason why the new facility is necessary. The new ballroom, which sits atop the former East Wing, is designed with several security features, including bulletproof glass and drone-proofing.
Trump has repeatedly said the structure is something that the Secret Service and the military have wanted for years, and he reiterated that point strongly following Saturday’s incident. However, the $400M ballroom project facing architect criticism has already drawn significant pushback, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s defense of the project only adding to the controversy.
Published: Apr 26, 2026 12:00 am