Trump blames the shooting incident on the White House banquet hall not being built.

BlockBeats news, April 26 — Trump posted: “What happened last night (referring to the White House press dinner shooting incident) is exactly the reason our great military, the Secret Service, law enforcement agencies, and the presidents of the past 150 years—each for different reasons—have always demanded that a large, secure, and reliable banquet hall be built inside the White House. If it weren’t for the current top-secret military banquet hall being constructed in the White House, this incident would not have happened. The faster it’s built, the better! It’s not only beautiful, but also equipped with all the highest-level security facilities. In addition, it has no upstairs rooms that would allow unprotected personnel to enter freely, and it is located within the gates of the White House, the safest building in the world. Any absurd lawsuit about the banquet hall raised by a woman walking her dog must be dismissed immediately—she has no standing to file such a lawsuit. Nothing should interfere with the construction of the banquet hall. Its budget is well controlled, and its progress is far ahead of expectations!”

BlockBeats Note: The White House press dinner shooting incident took place at the Washington Hilton Hotel. In July 2025, the Trump administration launched a plan to renovate the White House East Wing, intending to demolish the existing building and build a large banquet hall of about 8,300 square meters that can accommodate about 1,000 people, along with supporting security facilities such as an underground hospital and bomb shelters. The budget of $300–400 million will be fully covered by private donations (including technology giants, etc.) to address the severe shortage of space in the White House’s current state banquet hall. After the East Wing was rapidly demolished, the project was sued by organizations including the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States for bypassing congressional authorization, the review procedures of the National Historic Preservation regime, and the process for soliciting public opinion. Federal Judge Richard Leon has repeatedly ruled that the president is not authorized to unilaterally carry out large-scale renovations to historically significant White House buildings, and ordered a pause on above-ground parts of the construction. The case is currently in a legal standoff of “underground security facilities may continue, and the above-ground banquet hall main structure is paused.”