Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on X is urging the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s lawyer to drop its lawsuit challenging construction of a new White House ballroom pointing to last night’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner as proof the project is a security necessity.
Blanche wrote that the ballroom is essential for the president’s safety, arguing that once complete, Trump and future presidents would no longer need to leave the White House perimeter to attend large gatherings at venues like the Washington Hilton.
But there’s a problem with that argument. Last night’s dinner drew roughly 2,500 attendees. The proposed White House ballroom is 90,000 square feet and while that sounds massive, independent estimates suggest a ballroom that size holds well under 2,000 for a seated dinner. The correspondents’ dinner crowd wouldn’t have fit regardless.
More to the point the dinner is a press association event, not a White House function. It has been held at the Washington Hilton for decades and there’s no indication it would move to the White House under any scenario.
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