Trump blames the shooting incident on the unfinished White House banquet hall

Trump stated in a post: "What happened last night (referring to the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting incident) is exactly why our great military, Secret Service, law enforcement, and past presidents over the last 150 years have demanded the construction of a large, secure banquet hall within the White House. If it weren't for the military's top-secret banquet hall currently being built at the White House, this incident would not have occurred. The sooner it is built, the better!

It is not only beautiful but also equipped with all the highest-level security facilities. Furthermore, it does not have upstairs rooms that allow unauthorized personnel to enter freely, and it is located within the gates of the safest building in the world—the White House. The absurd lawsuit regarding the banquet hall raised by a woman walking her dog must be withdrawn immediately; she is not qualified to file such a lawsuit. Nothing should interfere with the construction of the banquet hall, which is well within budget and progressing far ahead of schedule!"

It is reported that the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner occurred at the Washington Hilton. In July 2025, the Trump administration launched a renovation plan for the East Wing of the White House, intending to demolish the existing building and construct a large banquet hall of approximately 8,300 square meters, capable of accommodating about 1,000 people, along with supporting facilities such as an underground hospital and air raid shelter, with a budget of $300-400 million entirely funded by private donations (from tech giants, etc.) to address the severe space shortage of the current state dining room.

After the project quickly demolished the East Wing, it faced lawsuits from organizations such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation for bypassing congressional authorization, national historic preservation review, and public opinion solicitation procedures. Federal Judge Richard Leon has repeatedly ruled that the president does not have the authority to unilaterally undertake large-scale renovations of historically significant White House buildings, ordering a suspension of above-ground construction, currently in a legal tug-of-war state of "underground safety facilities may continue, above-ground banquet hall construction suspended."