Trump Blames Shooting Incident on Unfinished White House Banquet Hall

On April 26, Trump stated, “What happened last night (referring to the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner) is exactly why our great military, Secret Service, law enforcement, and past presidents for the last 150 years have been asking for a large, secure banquet hall to be built in the White House. If it weren’t for the military top-secret banquet hall currently being constructed at the White House, this incident would not have occurred. The sooner it is built, the better! It is not only beautiful but also equipped with all the highest-level security facilities. Furthermore, it does not have upstairs rooms that allow unauthorized individuals to enter freely and is located within the world’s safest building—the White House. The ridiculous lawsuit regarding the banquet hall raised by a woman walking her dog must be withdrawn immediately; she is not qualified to file such a lawsuit. Nothing should interfere with the construction of the banquet hall, which is properly budgeted and progressing well beyond expectations!” BlockBeats notes: The shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner took place at the Washington Hilton. In July 2025, the Trump administration initiated a renovation plan for the White House East Wing, proposing to demolish the existing structure and build a new banquet hall of approximately 8,300 square meters, accommodating about 1,000 people, along with underground hospitals, bomb shelters, and other security facilities, with a budget of $300-400 million entirely funded by private donations (from tech giants, etc.) to address the severe space shortage of the current state dining room. After the project quickly demolished the East Wing, it faced lawsuits from organizations like the National Trust for Historic Preservation for bypassing congressional authorization, national historic preservation review, and public opinion solicitation processes. Federal Judge Richard Leon has repeatedly ruled that the president does not have the authority to unilaterally undertake large-scale renovations of historically significant White House buildings, ordering a halt to above-ground construction, which is currently in a legal tug-of-war status of ‘underground security facilities can continue, above-ground banquet hall construction paused.’