Less than 24 hours after a gunman tried to breach the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the Department of Justice sent a blunt message to the lawyers blocking construction of the president’s proposed White House ballroom: drop the lawsuit, or the government will move to end it for you.
The letter, dated April 26, was signed by Brett Shumate, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, and addressed to Greg Craig of Foley Hoag LLP, outside counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Craig served as White House Counsel under Barack Obama and as Clinton’s personal defense lawyer during the 1990s impeachment proceedings.
“Last night, there was another attempt on President Trump’s life,” Shumate wrote. “This time, the shooter targeted President Trump at the Washington Hilton, the only ballroom in Washington, D.C. suitable to host large gatherings for the President, where another shooter targeted President Reagan 45 years ago.”
It’s time to build the ballroom. pic.twitter.com/cUMkVpehGY
— Acting AG Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) April 26, 2026
Saturday night’s incident marked the third known assassination attempt against President Trump. Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old from Torrance, California, had booked a room at the Washington Hilton before the dinner. He was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and knives when he charged a security checkpoint just outside the ballroom, exchanging gunfire with Secret Service agents before being tackled to the ground.
One Secret Service agent was struck by a round but was wearing a bulletproof vest and is expected to recover. Allen was hospitalized and later taken into custody. Writings Allen sent to his family before the attack indicated his targets were Trump administration officials.
Trump, Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and multiple Cabinet members were evacuated without injury. Speaking at the White House briefing room shortly after the incident, Trump called Allen “a sick person” and said the Secret Service “acted quickly and bravely.” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was at Trump’s side for the briefing.
Read More: The WHCD Fiasco Shows Trump Is Exactly Right: We Desperately Need That Ballroom
The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed suit in December 2025, challenging the Trump administration’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing to make way for a planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom estimated to cost $400 million, funded entirely by private donors. The Trust argued the administration bypassed legally required reviews by the National Capital Planning Commission and Congress, and violated the National Environmental Policy Act.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon declined to issue a preliminary injunction twice, but on March 31 he reversed course, ruling that construction “must stop” because no law gives the president authority to build such a structure at the White House without congressional authorization. The Trump administration appealed within hours. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals scheduled oral arguments for June 5, and extended its administrative stay in the interim, allowing some construction to continue.
Saturday night handed the DOJ a new argument.
Shumate’s letter lays out the administration’s core argument. The White House Correspondents’ Dinner has been held at the Washington Hilton for decades because it is the only venue in D.C. large enough to accommodate the event. A completed White House ballroom, the DOJ contends, would end that dependency on an external venue the Secret Service cannot fully control.
“When the White House ballroom is complete, President Trump and his successors will no longer need to venture beyond the safety of the White House perimeter to attend large gatherings at the Washington Hilton ballroom,” Shumate wrote. “Put simply, your lawsuit puts the lives of the President, his family, and his staff at grave risk.”
Blanche amplified the message on X, calling the suit “the passing aesthetic gripe of a single person” that “cannot possibly justify delaying the construction of a secure facility for the President to do his job.” He set a hard deadline: if the National Trust did not voluntarily dismiss the case by 9:00 a.m. Monday, the DOJ would move to dissolve the injunction and dismiss the litigation.
Trump made the same argument publicly. In a Truth Social post Sunday, he wrote that what happened Saturday night is “exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE.”
pic.twitter.com/2dxcw4GATs
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 26, 2026
The shooting is also moving Congress. Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday he will introduce standalone legislation to authorize and fund the White House ballroom. Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana announced similar plans to seek unanimous consent in the Senate for the measure.
“It is an embarrassment to the strongest nation on Earth that we cannot host gatherings in our nation’s capital, including ones attended by our President, without the threat of violence and attempted assassinations,” Sheehy said.
If Congress moves to expressly authorize the project, it would moot the central legal question Judge Leon relied on when he issued the injunction.
The National Trust has maintained throughout the litigation that the administration is conflating two different things: the proposed above-ground ballroom and a separate national security bunker planned for the same site. The Trust has argued it does not oppose the bunker, only the above-ground construction proceeding without the legally required public review process.
Judge Leon, when the administration cited national security rationale for expedited construction, called that argument “incredible, if not disingenuous.”
Read More: Judge Hits Pause on Trump’s White House Ballroom Project
Whether Saturday night changes the calculus for Judge Leon, the D.C. Circuit, or the National Trust itself is an open question. The Monday morning deadline will be the first answer.
Editor’s Note: President Trump is leading America into the “Golden Age” as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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