Washington– President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is taking advantage of the shooting White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday To try to pressure preservationists to drop their lawsuit over the 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 said plainly Sunday on X, where he posted a letter in which Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate gave the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Which filed a lawsuit to prevent constructionuntil nine o’clock on Monday morning to dismiss the lawsuit.
If it does not do so, the government will ask the court to do so “in light of the extraordinary events that occurred last night,” Shumate wrote, describing the Washington Hilton Hotel — the site of Saturday’s party — as “manifestly unsafe” for events with the president “because its size presents extraordinary security challenges to the Secret Service.”
The White House Ballroom “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,” Shumate wrote.
Asked about the letter, Elliott Carter, spokesman for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said Sunday that the group would review it with legal counsel.
The preservation group filed a lawsuit in December, a week after the White House Demolishing the eastern wing To make room for the ballroom, which Trump said could seat 999 people. Trump says the project is being funded by private donations, although public funds are paying for the bunker’s construction and security upgrades.
A crowd of 2,300 people attended the event held Saturday night at the Hilton Hotel, home to one of the few rooms in Washington large enough to host the event. It is crowded with people at round tables with chairs at the back, and space to move is tight. The dinner is not a White House event, but is run by the White House Correspondents’ Association, a nonprofit organization that includes journalists from media outlets that cover the president.
For months, Trump mentioned the auditorium project at almost every opportunity, often talking about the lawsuit or his desire to build the space during events on a number of other topics. As he addressed tuxedoed reporters who raced from the Washington Hilton to the White House for a news conference Saturday night, Trump called for tougher security measures and cited the incident as a reason why his own ballroom was needed.
In the wake of the shooting, Trump, Blanche and a number of administration supporters took the opportunity to push for the project across social media platforms and news programs. Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan said he agreed with Trump “100 percent” on the massive White House construction project, which Jordan said on Fox News would “obviously be a safer location for this type of event.”
On Sunday morning, 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 “tremendous control over the security environment for future events with a highly fortified facility.”
Even some Democrats agreed. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who attended Saturday’s dinner, said on Channel X that the proposed White House space should be used “for events just like this.” In an interview with CNN later Sunday, Fetterman said attendees and Americans in general were in a “vulnerable” position during Saturday’s event, in part because many in the presidential line of succession were in attendance and could have been harmed.
“I certainly hope so,” Fetterman responded when asked if the incident would spark more support for the White House project.
In more than a century since its grounds were largely closed to the public, dozens of events are proof that even the White House complex is not impervious to intrusion.
There have been a number of documented incidents in which people have climbed security barriers around the White House. One of them, a troubled army veteran carrying a knife, Jump the fence In 2014 he rushed to the White House, making his way to the East Room before returning to the lobby on the State Floor deep within the palace.
A Department of Homeland Security review of the case found that lack of training, poor hiring decisions and communication problems contributed to the embarrassing fiasco that ultimately led to the Secret Service chief’s resignation.
In 1994, a pilot died when he crashed a stolen small plane on the South Lawn, hitting a tree and a corner on the first floor of the building. In 2009, uninvited guests Tarek and Mikael Salahi stormed a state dinner, passed through security checkpoints and met with President Barack Obama in an incident that sparked a security investigation.
The litigation has been ongoing since December, although there have been some recent hiccups.
Trump demolished the East Wing last fall to build a massive ballroom in that space. In her lawsuit, National Trust for Historic Preservation He argued that Trump exceeded his authority by moving forward with the project without first getting approval from key federal agencies and Congress.
Earlier this month, A Federal Court of Appeal Trump was allowed to continue construction of the $400 million project, and the ruling was issued the next day The lower court judge continued to block above-ground construction on the website and set a date for a June 5 hearing to review the case. US District Judge Richard Leon’s ruling had blocked above-ground construction of the 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m) ballroom, while only allowing underground work to continue on a bunker and other “national security facilities” at the site.
Trump expected, on Fox News, on Sunday, that his project would be completed by the end of his current term.
“In ’28, you’re going to have something, you’re going to have a ballroom, top level, security,” Trump said. “You won’t have problems.”
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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.