What’s one of the most dangerous jobs in the world? That’s an easy one! Just ask Presidents Jackson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Truman, Ford, Reagan and especially now Trump.
The bell-ringer answer is the highest office in the land held by the bellringer himself, the President of the United States of America, with the current president having already survived not one, two, but THREE assassination attempts, the most recent only a few days ago.
That’s why the Justice Department is pressing preservationists to drop their Trump ballroom suit.
Why? Because it would make it a whole lot easier for the Secret Service to safeguard the President at events such as the White House Correspondents’ Dinner which was so full of media, government officials and political leaders all crowded into one jam-packed dining room at the Washington Hilton that it made providing their security infinitely more challenging.
For Secret Service, it was like protecting people in a blizzard, safeguarding a slew of celebrities stuffed into an overcrowded movie theater.
That’s why President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is using the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to try to pressure preservationists to drop their lawsuit over his 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, posting a letter in which Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate gave the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has sued to block construction a limited time to dismiss its lawsuit.
If it doesn’t do so, Shumate wrote, the government would ask a court to do so “in light of last night’s extraordinary events,” calling the Washington Hilton “demonstrably unsafe” for events with the president “because its size presents extraordinary security challenges for the Secret Service.”
The White House ballroom, Shumate wrote, “will ensure the safety and security of the President for decades to come and prevent future assassination on the President at the Washington Hilton.”
The preservation group sued in December, a week after the White House finished demolishing the East Wing to make way for a ballroom that Trump said would fit 999 people and the project is funded by private donations, although public money is paying for the bunker construction and security upgrades.
A crowd of 2,300 attended Saturday night’s event at the Hilton, home to one of the few rooms in Washington large enough for the event. It packs in attendees at round tables whose chairs are back to back, there’s only a tight room to move around. The dinner is run by the White House Correspondents’ Association, a nonprofit organization of journalists from media outlets that cover the president.
For months, Trump has cited the ballroom as a security solution.
In the wake of the shooting, Trump, Blanche and a number of supporters of the administration have taken the opportunity to push for the project across social media platforms and news programs. Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said he agreed with Trump “100%” on the massive White House construction project, which Jordan said on Fox News Channel “obviously would be much safer location for these type of events.”
Sunday morning on X, 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 “immense control over the security environment of future events with a very hardened facility.”
Even some Democrats agreed, like Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who attended Saturday’s dinner. Fetterman says the proposed White House space should be used “for events exactly like these” as Americans overall were in a “vulnerable” position during the correspondents’ event, in part because many in the presidential line of succession were present and could have been harmed.
Fetterman responded, “I certainly hope so” when asked if the incident would spark more support for the White House project.
How is the White House ballroom project going?
In litigation since December, work is ongoing, although there have been hiccups. In its lawsuit, the National Trust for Historic Preservation argued that Trump had overstepped his authority by moving forward with the project without first getting approval from key federal agencies and Congress, but a federal appeals court allowed Trump to continue construction.
In an interview on Fox News Channel, Trump forecast that in 2028 America is going to have a ballroom with “top of the line, security.”
As a former newspaper reporter, Madden has been to Washington and to The White House and has written directly to and about President Trump many times on his blog at MaddenMischief.com. Madden is also CEO of TransMedia Group, the PR firm he founded when he left NBC where he was vice president, assistant to the president, and to the CEO, then Fred Silverman. Madden’s dutiful daughter Adrienne Mazzone is the PR firm’s enterprising president and he’s the media masterful CEO.
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