Members of the media raise their hands to answer questions as U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a map of the White House Ballroom as he speaks aboard Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on March 29, 2026.
Elizabeth Franz | Reuters
President Donald Trump, senior officials in his administration, and many MAGA officials are pushing for a White House ballroom, citing the mass shooting just outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner that prompted Trump to evacuate an event at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night.
Trump and his allies have argued that building his controversial and legally questionable $400 million ballroom is essential to protecting him and future presidents from assassination attacks and other national security threats.
But critics argue that the White House ballroom is not an acceptable alternative to private venues for nongovernmental events, and that the president will no doubt travel the country and the world and make public appearances at many venues.
Despite this initial assertion, the Justice Department suggested Sunday in a letter to attorneys for clients objecting to the ballroom’s construction that the White House Correspondents’ Association may hold its annual dinner in the ballroom if it is built.
“Once the White House Ballroom is complete, President Trump and his successors will no longer have to venture outside the safety of the White House to attend large gatherings at the Washington Hilton,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate wrote. Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate wrote Gregory Craig, who is representing the National Trust for Historic Preservation in a lawsuit seeking to block construction of the ballroom without Congressional impeachment.
A crane overlooks the White House as work continues on the construction of a new ballroom addition following the demolition of the east wing on April 11, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Al Drago | Getty Images
But critics say Mr. Trump and his allies are citing Saturday’s incident as a cynical back-burner for their social media claims.
They also say there is good reason to believe that he, and future presidents, will not stop attending events held off the White House grounds even if the ballroom is built.
They also scoff at the idea that the WHCA, an independent group of journalists who cover the White House, would agree to host a dinner at the White House, especially when a harsh media critic like Trump occupies the Oval Office.
WHCA president and CBS reporter Weijia Zhang did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on this question.
But Kelly McBride, senior vice president and director of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership,
When asked about the idea of the WHCA hosting a dinner at the White House, she said, “There’s no way they would do that.”
McBride has criticized the WHCA’s banquet, describing it in an April 16 article as “a red carpet schmoozefest with the powerhouse sources they covered” and saying it was “never a good idea.”
“The public’s skepticism about our independence cannot be overcome by the annual rationalization that partying with the people we cover is just a sign of courtesy,” McBride wrote.
“I can’t imagine a world in which even those considering keeping this dinner and keeping the invitation to the president would think it would be a good idea to move it to a venue owned and operated by the White House,” McBride said in an interview with CNBC.
“This solves the security problem, but it creates an even bigger problem for journalists, right? They’re now holding the White House accountable for this event,” she said.
“They lose their independence,” McBride said. “If the original optics were bad, it is completely unacceptable to hold it in a ballroom controlled by the White House.”
She said she wasn’t surprised that Trump and his administration were quick to use the WHCD shooting as a social debate.
“Trump has always been a great opportunist,” she said.
It is also uncertain whether other non-media entities not affiliated with the U.S. government would agree to hold signature events that may involve the president’s attendance at banquet halls under his control.
National Prayer Breakfast also held at Hilton
Every U.S. president has attended the National Prayer Breakfast since it began in 1953, including Trump, who spoke at a Congress-filled event in February to tout his administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
The breakfast was held at the Washington Hilton, the same venue since the 1980s and the same space as Saturday’s WHCD event. The Hilton has one of the largest ballrooms in Washington, at 30,000 square feet.
Rep. Ben Kline (R-Va.), co-chair of the Prayer Breakfast, said in a statement to CNBC on Tuesday that the event will be held at the Hilton next year.
“We are honored to host the event at the Washington Hilton again this year, and safety will be our top priority when hosting the event at the Washington Hilton again,” Klein said.
“While I support the construction of a new White House ballroom, I remain confident in the Secret Service’s ability to secure and protect the President.”
“It’s despicable to use a potentially tragic incident to justify building a gilded banquet hall for this person,” said Virginia Cantor, chief counsel and director of ethics and anti-corruption at the Democracy Defenders Fund, an advocacy group that has supported multiple legal challenges to Trump’s policies.
“I don’t think it took them two beats to try and pursue ballroom legitimacy,” Canter said.
“What we’re saying is that the president will only hold events in the ballroom? Should we build another ballroom at Mar-a-Lago?” Canter asked, referring to President Trump’s mansion and private club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Canter said the president’s position, in addition to being a government post, “is also political.”
“He has to be out there among the people” at events outside the White House, she said.
Trump and other presidents travel the country and the world
Cantor said Trump’s claims about security at ballrooms are belied by his track record of rallies and other events across the country.
“I mean, it’s crazy. He goes golfing every weekend,” she said.
Trump was the target of an assassination attempt on September 15, 2024, while playing golf at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Secret Service agents thwarted the attempt.
“The ballroom is a vanity project, not a national security project,” Canter said. “The ballroom was built because he wanted to add his name to the White House.”
“The solution is not to set up a banquet hall every time a security event occurs.”
Construction cranes are seen from the Washington Monument on the site of the former East Tower of the White House on April 17, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
Cantor said that insisting on holding events where Trump or other presidents are guests in the ballroom “would give President Trump control over the guest list.”
He said he doesn’t expect that to be the starting point for the White House Correspondents Association.
Asked about the criticism of the ballroom, White House Press Secretary Davis Engle said in a statement Tuesday: “As President Trump has repeatedly said, the White House has long desired a safe and secure facility to host large gatherings without jeopardizing the safety of the President and the safety of all staff, guests and visitors.”
“The ballroom has been carefully designed with enhanced security features including bulletproof glass, drone detection technology, projectile-resistant materials and numerous other national security features, making it the most secure ballroom in the world,” Ingle said.
“There’s a pretty good case that the White House needs more entertainment space,” said Dylan Hedler Gaudette, acting vice president for policy and government affairs at the Project on Government Oversight, another advocacy group.
“I don’t think it’s a completely ridiculous idea,” Hedler-Gaudette said, noting that the White House currently hosts tents on its lawn when hosting large events such as dinners.
But Hedler-Gaudette objected to the way President Trump’s ballroom project is proceeding without Congressional approval, without input from other government agencies that normally influence the design and scope of such buildings, and with private funding from companies that do business with the federal government and are subject to federal regulatory oversight.
He also noted that Trump mentioned the ballroom during a White House press conference shortly after the Hilton was evacuated on Saturday following the shooting, and that the incident was widely used by his supporters on social media to discuss the ballroom on Sunday.
“When it’s this quick and universal, it seems pretentious,” says Hedler-Gaudette.
He said the shooting incident in which a California man was arrested on charges including an attempted assassination of Trump was “very serious.”
“I think it’s pretty egregious” for Ballroom to “try to exploit that” when it faces legal resistance and lacks support from a majority of the public, Hedler-Gaudette said.
He was skeptical that if the ballroom were built, as President Trump has suggested, it would be frequently used by outside groups.
“How likely is it that the White House will allow trade groups to rent out (banquet halls) to host dinners?” Hettler-Gaudette asked.
“I can imagine that the groups that might use social gatherings during Trump’s presidency would become kind of a broader MAGA ecosystem,” he said, referring to President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
The Justice Department, which is defending Mr. Trump in a lawsuit challenging the ballroom, doubled down on its attack on the National Trust for Historic Preservation in a court filing Monday night arguing that a federal judge should overturn the construction injunction, calling the organization’s very name “fake.”
“Saturday’s narrow failure, the third assassination attempt on President Trump since 2024, confirms what was already clear,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“The President needs a safe space for large-scale events, and one does not currently exist in Washington, D.C.. For the safety of President Trump and future presidents, as well as their families, cabinet members, and staff, this court’s injunction blocking this project cannot validly continue,” Blanche wrote.
