Trump presses his case for White House ballroom following press dinner shooting

trump spent sunday pushing for the white house ballroom project to keep moving, citing the shooting at the correspondents' dinner the night before. he and his cabinet were evacuated from the washington hilton after gunshots; secret service took down the shooter. on truth social, trump wrote that the incident proves why every president for 150 years has demanded a secure ballroom on white house grounds. he called the current project "militarily top secret" and said it "cannot be built fast enough." the national trust for historic preservation is suing to block the $400 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom, arguing trump overstepped by skipping congressional approval. a federal judge on april 16 largely halted above-ground construction but allowed underground national security work. the d.c. circuit court of appeals paused that order the next day and set a june 5 hearing. trump said the suit must be dropped and called the ballroom a national security matter.