The Trump administration is ramping up its push for the president’s proposed ballroom after last weekend’s shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner, with top Republicans now arguing the event space is needed for security reasons.
Donald Trump held a news conference to pitch the “need” for the White House East Wing ballroom almost immediately after the Saturday shooting at the Washington Hilton hotel. His supporters were quick to echo that message, and Republican legislators are now pushing to expedite the ballroom’s construction.
The project has long been controversial, its size and cost estimates have changed drastically and it’s facing a lawsuit that aims to stop its construction.
More space
Trump raised the idea of a new ballroom in the White House East Wing during Barack Obama’s presidency in 2010, reportedly telling Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, that he would put up his own money to help build it.
He often criticized the East Room in the executive residence, which seated about 200 people, for being too small and forcing large events to be held in tents on the White House grounds.
Trump has said he does not like the idea of hosting world leaders in pavilions on the South Lawn and has insisted that presidents have wanted a bigger ballroom for 150 years.
A grand proposal
In July 2025, during his second term in office, Trump officially announced plans to replace the East Wing with a privately funded 90,000-square-foot “White House State Ballroom” that would seat 650 and be completed before the end of his presidency.
At the time, the president said the ballroom’s construction would not touch or interfere with the current building. He hired architect James McCrery II and lined up a construction consortium on a $200-million US contract.
Matt Lebo, a political scientist at Western University in London, Ont., said the project has been controversial from the start because Trump didn’t get congressional authorization to do it, but also because it seems to be of “tiny significance” when people aren’t happy with the economy and the U.S. is embroiled in wars overseas.
“This has more of the president’s attention than a thousand other things that a president’s supposed to be doing,” Lebo said.
Donors and demolition
In October, crews began tearing down the East Wing to make way for the ballroom, drawing outrage from historians, preservationists and Democrats.
The same week, the White House released a partial list of donors said to be funding the project that included tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta, and weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin.
The Presidential Emergency Operations Center, a bunker located under the East Wing, was also dismantled in the process, to be replaced with a new military complex beneath the ballroom.
“Before figuring out if all of this was going to be authorized and paid for, they demolished what was already there … and ignored all of the procedures of demolishing something so historically significant,” Lebo said.
Changing numbers
In September, Trump said the ballroom would hold 900 people, rather than 650. In October, he said it would accommodate 999.
The cost has also ballooned. In October, the cost estimate went to $300 million from $200 million. By December, it was being pegged at $400 million.
The White House announced in December that Shalom Baranes would take over the design, amid media reports that McCrery had clashed with Trump over the increasing size and scope of the ballroom.
Legal challenge
The non-profit National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in mid-December to halt the ballroom’s construction, arguing the demolition of the East Wing lacked legally required congressional approval and proper reviews.
With the lawsuit still before the courts, Trump rolled out revised renderings of the East Wing in February. After a New York Times analysis of the drawings noted design flaws — including columns obstructing windows and stairs that led to nowhere — he unveiled a new design in late March.
On March 31, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon granted a preliminary injunction to pause construction due to lack of congressional authorization.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Justice Department filed a motion asking a federal judge to throw out the preservationists’ lawsuit. Critics said the motion read like a Trump social media post, with portions written in all caps and use of the phrase “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Shots fired
Shots were fired on Saturday at the Washington Hilton hotel, a floor above the White House correspondents’ dinner, where Trump and other top U.S. officials were in attendance alongside members of the media.
Trump promptly took the opportunity to push for the ballroom. “We need the ballroom,” he told reporters that night, now citing security reasons. He claimed later in a post on his Truth Social platform that the shooting would never have happened with the “Military Top Secret Ballroom.”
Dozens of prominent Trump backers made similar social media posts about the need for the ballroom on the night of the shooting.
CBC News’ Paul Hunter was in the ballroom when shots were fired at the White House correspondents’ dinner, he tells The National’s Ian Hanomansing how the night unfolded.
The Justice Department has used the incident to further pressure preservationists into dropping their lawsuit, a point that acting attorney general Todd Blanche emphasized at a Monday news conference about the shooting.
Republicans in Congress are now pushing for legislation to speed construction of the ballroom, citing increased security concerns. And now, some of those proposals call for the use of public funds.
Lebo said he doesn’t think the Republican Party’s new angle to push the ballroom will sway the American public.
“People who like Trump will say it’s a great idea and it’s obviously needed, and the people who don’t like him, there’s no decorations or building you can do on the White House that will change their mind,” he said.