While his political rivals are quick to write the entire undertaking off as a vanity project, President Donald Trump has always insisted that his vision for a grand White House ballroom goes far beyond any desire for self-aggrandizement.

Instead, he has long portrayed it as a necessary tool not only for effective foreign relations but also another layer of protection against a troubling surge in politically motivated violence.

And a shooting that disrupted Saturday night’s the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner proved his point, the president asserted the following morning.

Per KTXS:

“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. 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!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The President was scheduled to speak at the dinner being held at the Washington Hilton, which included hundreds of guests ranging from Cabinet members to journalists.

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However, the event was cut short when a suspect, armed with a shotgun, handgun and multiple knives, reportedly made it past the outermost layer of security at the event and charged into the hotel lobby area in an attempt to breach a Secret Service checkpoint.

Trump previously addressed the situation in remarks delivered shortly after the shooting:

Even then, he reiterated his call for a ballroom, a project the left has continually aimed to block:

Here’s the full text of the post from above:

President Trump’s press conference post-shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner. He says the entire room was united, the officer who was shot in the vest is in good spirits, this is why the ballroom is needed:
“This was an event dedicated to freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press. And in a certain way it did, because the fact that they just unified. I saw a room that was just totally unified. It was, in one way, very beautiful, a very beautiful thing to see.

A man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons, and he was taken down by some very brave members of Secret Service, and they acted very quickly and have just released, for purposes of transparency, clarity, I’ve ordered it to be put out. You probably have it by now, put out on Truth and put out on many other platforms a tape showing the violence of this thug that attacked our Constitution. And also showing how quickly Secret Service and law enforcement acted on our country’s behalf, really did a great job.

One officer was shot, but saved by the fact that he was wearing a obviously a very good bulletproof vest. He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun. And the vest did the job. I just spoke to the officer and he’s doing great. He’s in great shape. He is – has very high spirits. And we told him we love him and respect him. And he’s a very proud guy. He’s very proud of what he does, Secret Service agent.

And we looked at all of the conditions that took place tonight. And I will say, you know, it’s not a particularly secure building. And I didn’t want to say this, but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House. It’s actually a larger room, and it’s a much more secure. It’s got it’s drone proof, it’s bulletproof glass. We need the ballroom.”

And here’s the footage of the incident as it unfolded:

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A BBC report emphasized the concerns Saturday evening’s incident raise regarding a president who has already faced multiple assassination attempts:

Gary O’Donoghue, the BBC’s Chief North America correspondent who was at the dinner, said while roads were closed around the Washington Hilton for hours, security at the venue itself “wasn’t particularly heavy”.

“The man on the door outside only took a cursory look at my ticket from what must have been six feet away,” he wrote.

Tickets to the dinner only had table numbers written on them and not the actual names of guests. Identification was not checked at any point for those entering the hotel.

Guests making their way to the dinner went down escalators from the main lobbies, before going through a security checkpoint in an area one level above the ballroom entrances. When the dinner begins, they go down a flight of stairs to enter.

This recent report shows where Trump’s effort to build the ballroom currently stands:

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
 

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