Drop the Lawsuit says Department of Justice

DOJ leverages Correspondents' Dinner shooting to demand preservationists drop Trump ballroom lawsuit

Hours after a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday, the Justice Department moved to turn the crisis into leverage, sending the National Trust for Historic Preservation a letter demanding it dismiss its lawsuit against President Donald Trump's planned $400 million White House ballroom by 9 a.m. Monday or face a government motion to throw the case out.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche posted the letter on X with a blunt message: "It's time to build the ballroom." The letter, written by Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, called the Washington Hilton, where some 2,300 guests had gathered Saturday night, "demonstrably unsafe" for events involving the president.

The move marks the sharpest escalation yet in a legal and political fight that has simmered since last fall, when Trump ordered the demolition of the White House East Wing to clear ground for a massive 90,000-square-foot ballroom and bunker complex.

The administration's argument is straightforward: the president should not have to attend large events at venues the Secret Service cannot fully secure. Saturday's shooting gave that argument fresh and visceral force.

The letter and the deadline--

Shumate's letter, reported by PBS NewsHour and the Associated Press, framed the demand in urgent terms. Writing "in light of last night's extraordinary events," Shumate stated that the Hilton's size "presents extraordinary security challenges for the Secret Service."

The ballroom project, he wrote, "will ensure the safety and security of the President for decades to come and prevent future assassination attempts on the President at the Washington Hilton."

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Democrats always come up with something to bitch about and the ballroom is not costing the taxpayers a dime. All money was raised through private donors.

A federal appeals court permitted construction to proceed in April 2026, though a lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation was ongoing regarding the lack of approval for the project.