Justice Dept urges end to lawsuit over Trump's $400M White House ballroom

Justice Department pushes preservation group to drop White House ballroom suit

The Justice Department urged the National Trust for Historic Preservation to dismiss its lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s planned $400 million White House ballroom, arguing that recent events at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner underline the need for changes to how presidential events are secured.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday that it was time “to build the ballroom,” posting on X a letter from Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate that gave the National Trust until 9 a.m. Monday to dismiss its lawsuit. The letter warns that if the preservation group does not comply, the government would ask a court to end the case “in light of last night’s extraordinary events,” citing security concerns at the Washington Hilton, where the Saturday night gala was held.

Shumate argued in the letter that the Washington Hilton is “demonstrably unsafe” for events with the president because its “size presents extraordinary security challenges for the Secret Service.” The letter also said the proposed 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 Hilton.

Elliot Carter, a spokesperson for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said Sunday the group would review the government’s letter with legal counsel. The preservation group sued in December, one week after the White House finished demolishing the East Wing to make way for a ballroom Trump said would fit 999 people.

Trump has said the project would be funded by private donations, but the article said public money is paying for the bunker construction and security upgrades. The Saturday event was not held at the White House; it was run by the White House Correspondents’ Association, a nonprofit organization of journalists who cover the president, and the Hilton hosted it with an estimated 2,300 attendees.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Trump, Blanche and administration supporters used the incident to press their case for the ballroom project on social media and on news programs. Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said he agreed with Trump “100%” and argued on Fox News that the White House would be a safer location for such events.

Other elected officials also voiced support. On X, Sen. Lindsey Graham said he agreed with Trump that the White House ballroom is a “national security necessity” that would give the Secret Service “immense control” over the security environment for future events through a “very hardened facility.” Sen. John Fetterman, who attended the dinner, said on X that the proposed White House space should be used “for events exactly like these,” and later said on CNN that Saturday’s event left people in a “vulnerable” position, in part because some in the presidential line of succession were present.

The story also points to prior security breaches at the White House complex, including an incident in 2014 when an Army veteran scaled security barriers with a knife and got into the East Room before reaching deep into the mansion, and a 1994 case in which a pilot died after crashing a small stolen plane on the South Lawn. It also references a 2009 incident in which Tareq and Michaele Salahi entered a state dinner after passing through security checkpoints and meeting President Barack Obama.

In court, the preservation lawsuit has been ongoing since December while construction continues with limits. Trump tore down the East Wing last fall to build the ballroom there, and in its lawsuit the National Trust said Trump had overstepped his authority by moving forward without first obtaining approval from key federal agencies and Congress.

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court allowed Trump to continue construction of the $400 million project, after a district judge had continued to block above-ground construction and set a June 5 hearing. The district judge, Richard J. Leon, had ruled to block above-ground work on a 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom addition but allowed below-ground work to continue for a bunker and other “national security facilities” at the site.

Trump also said on Fox News Channel Sunday that by the end of his current term the project would be complete, forecasting “in the year ’28 you’re going to have something, you’re going to have a ballroom, the top of the line, security,” adding, “You’re not going to have problems.”