Trump shooting revives GOP push to fund White House ballroom

Gunfire at a White House Correspondents’ Association dinner sent Donald Trump out of the Washington Hilton just after 8:30 p.m. Saturday, as Vice President JD Vance and other Cabinet members were also evacuated and a Secret Service officer was struck in his armored vest and briefly hospitalized. Authorities charged Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, on Monday with attempting to assassinate the president, a charge that could carry life in prison if he is convicted.

The shooting has quickly become more than a security crisis. Two days later, Republicans in Congress were using the attack to revive a separate fight over Trump’s proposed White House ballroom, a $400 million project that the president has already moved to build after tearing down the historic East Wing of the White House. Earlier plans described the ballroom as roughly 90,000 square feet, with room for as many as 1,000 guests, far larger than the current White House can accommodate.

The project had already run into a legal barrier. On March 31, a federal judge ruled that construction could proceed only with congressional approval, and the Trump administration has appealed. Now Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and two other Republicans have drafted a bill to finance the ballroom with taxpayer money, while Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said the GOP budget bill should include the project. Republicans are also weighing whether to attach authorization to a reconciliation bill, a move that would let the measure pass the Senate with 51 votes instead of 60.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday the ballroom would provide a “safe environment” for events, and Rep. Mike Lawler called it “imperative.” Sen. Tim Sheehy said he would seek fast Senate approval. The push reflects how quickly a violent incident has been folded into a broader Republican agenda, with the ballroom now being sold not just as an aesthetic upgrade but as a security fix for presidential events.

The aftermath has also intensified pressure on Congress to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shut down for 73 days in a broader funding standoff. DHS funding remains trapped in a Senate dispute in which Democrats are withholding the votes needed to reopen the department unless ICE reforms are included, while Republicans are trying to use reconciliation to fund ICE and parts of Customs and Border Protection for three years. With lawmakers returning to Washington and already briefed by the Secret Service, the White House is reviewing security protocols even as the fight over what to fund next widens well beyond the attack itself.