On Sunday, the Justice Department pressed the preservation group suing the White House over Trump’s ballroom project to drop the lawsuit in the wake of Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. It looks like no one in the administration has bothered to explain to Donald J. Trump — or his DOJ — that the White House Correspondents' Dinner is not, has never been, and has no reason ever to be a White House event.
The WHCD is hosted by an independent press association and held at the Washington Hilton precisely because journalists covering the president probably shouldn't be dining at his house on his terms. But sure, let's use a shooting at a hotel as a pretext to demand that the press corps move its independence celebration to a 90,000-square-foot ballroom the president bulldozed a historic wing to build, bypassed federal approval processes to construct, and somehow secured $400 million in private donations to fund — because nothing says "free press" quite like holding your journalism awards dinner at the pleasure of the man you're supposed to be holding accountable.
After Saturday's shooting forced the president and other senior officials to be evacuated from the correspondents' dinner, Acting AG Todd Blanche publicly called on the National Trust for Historic Preservation to abandon its legal challenge against the Trump administration's ballroom project, according to The Hill.
“If your client does not dismiss the lawsuit by 9:00 AM on Monday, the government will move to dissolve the injunction and dismiss the case in light of last night’s extraordinary events,” the letter continued.
Immediately after the incident, Trump held a press conference to demand completion of his fortified party palace. This is the most obvious sleight of hand in history to connect the ballroom to the shooting incident at another venue.
And last night, Trump took to Truth Social to further his demands.
"What happened last 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," Captain Caps Lock wrote. "This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House."
"It cannot be built fast enough! While beautiful, it has every highest level security feature there is plus, there are no rooms sitting on top for unsecured people to pour in, and is inside the gates of the most secure building in the World, The White House," he added. "The ridiculous Ballroom lawsuit, brought by a woman walking her dog, who has absolutely No Standing to bring such a suit, must be dropped, immediately. Nothing should be allowed to interfere with with its construction, which is on budget and substantially ahead of schedule!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP"
Yeah, see, that's why a lot of people aren't buying that the incident wasn't staged. The WHCD would never be hosted at President Miracle Ear's ballroom. That's not how it works.
