Thursday 30th of April 2026
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a top secret ballroom?... surely not....

Within hours of an armed gunman’s attempt to enter the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, attended by top administration officials and hundreds of journalists, President Donald Trump did what he does best: use the assassination attempt to defend his ballroom project.

 

Trump turns the WHCD shooting into a pitch for the White House ballroom

‘This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom,’ he wrote on Truth Social.

 

During a White House press conference just hours after he and several cabinet members were evacuated, Trump told reporters that the Washington Hilton, the hotel where the WHCD historically takes place, was “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 much more secure.”

The morning after the alleged assassination attempt, Trump doubled down on his ballroom demands via a Truth Social post. “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!”

Last month, a federal judge halted construction on the White House ballroom, one of the more controversial projects of the second Trump administration. The $400 million project, which began when Trump suddenly ordered the demolition of the East Wing last October, is widely seen as a vehicle for corporate donors trying to curry favor with Trump. Notably, several major tech and crypto corporations have donated to the nonprofit fund, including Amazon, Apple, Coinbase, Gemini, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, raising questions about whether they’re trying to influence Trump to sign favorable tech policies.

The freeze was in response to a lawsuit filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, alleging that Trump had acted improperly by not seeking the approval of Congress as required by federal law before destroying the East Wing.

In his post, Trump called the lawsuit “ridiculous” and demanded again that the lawsuit be dropped. “Nothing should be allowed to interfere with with its construction, which is on budget and substantially ahead of schedule!!!”

Preliminary reports identified the alleged shooter as Cole Allen, a 31-year-old man from Torrance, California, who had been staying at the Washington Hilton, the hotel situated above the ballroom. Although there was lighter security in the immediate entrance to the hotel where paying guests were staying, Allen was unable to breach the security perimeter set around the entrance to the subterranean ballroom.

Though his motivations are still largely unknown, law enforcement agents believe that Allen was there to target Trump and several senior administration officials in attendance, which included Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and senior adviser Stephen Miller. Hundreds of high-profile journalists were also in attendance, including members of the White House press corps.

This is the third attempt on Trump’s life, making him the US president with the most assassination attempts on his life. The first occurred during a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman shot at Trump and managed to graze his ear; the second took place later that year at Mar-a-Lago, where federal agents shot and killed a man attempting to shoot the president while he was golfing. The Washington Hilton has also played host to a previous presidential assassination attempt, when John Hinckley Jr. shot and wounded Ronald Reagan outside the hotel in 1981.

Correction, April 27: An earlier version of this article misspelled the names of the people involved in Ronald Reagan’s attempted assassination. They are John Hinckley and Ronald Reagan, not John Hinkley and Ronald Reagain.

https://www.theverge.com/policy/918843/trump-whcd-attack-white-house-ballroom

 

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         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

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SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UzMSxBfBOt8

 

tasteful....

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said President Donald Trump’s new $200 million ballroom in the White House will be done in a “tasteful and historical kind of a way.”

“I mean they’re not putting in a Dave and Buster’s kind of situation here,” Fetterman told Fox News on Saturday. “Upgrading some of these facilities seems pretty normal overall.”

Related: Democratic Sen. John Fetterman To Meet With Trump At Mar-A-Lago

At the end of July, the White House announced its plans to tear down the East Wing to build a new ballroom to accommodate large social events, saying it will be a 90,000-square-foot “much-needed and exquisite addition” that will seat 650 people, and be an “ornately designed and carefully crafted space” that might look similar to the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida club.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and donors will finance the project. Renovations will begin in September, and it’s expected to be done before Trump leaves office ― however, construction has seemingly already begun because White House tours have been put on pause.

This is just the latest section of the White House to undergo a makeover. In June, the Rose Garden was covered in gravel, and portraits of Trump have been hung throughout the building.

While Fetterman said he doesn’t have any “strong opinions” on the ballroom, he said he isn’t going to “freak out” or make some “weird demands” or have a hearing on it, seemingly referring to his fellow Congresspeople calling out Trump about the ballroom.

Related: Kristi Noem’s Latest Donald Trump Boast Has Critics Howling

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a video posted on social media that the ballroom is what “DOGE is all about.”

“Cutting things, taking things away from you and not giving it to some place that needed it,” he said. “Giving it to the big shots who run the show, Donald Trump at the top of the list.”

Fetterman told Fox News that the new ballroom is “an investment” in the White House and said it won’t be done before Trump’s term is up.

Fetterman’s remarks on the ballroom were more positive than his Democratic counterparts, like Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who called it a “gigantic boondoggle,” or Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who questioned Trump’s authority to remodel the White House. This year, Fetterman, who was once described as progressive, has shown more loyalty to Trump and Republicans by siding with Republicans on denying immigrants due process and voting to confirm Pam Bondi, who denied the results of the 2020 election, as head of the justice department.

https://www.aol.com/john-fetterman-says-theres-no-172848301.html

 

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With just over seven months to go until the midterm elections, the US-Israeli war on Iran pushing gas prices past $4 per gallon, and the rising cost of living bringing consumer confidence to an all-time low, political observers marveled on Monday at Republican senators’ decision to center President Donald Trump’s demand for a new $400 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the White House as a top legislative goal.

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) held a press conference late Monday to announce their intention to expedite a bill to the Senate floor to use public funds to pay for the construction of a secure ballroom, joining Trump in insisting that a shooting at the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) dinner on Saturday proved the project is a national security priority.

Trump has demanded the construction of the ballroom for months, ordering demolition work to begin last year as he insisted the project would be paid for entirely by private donations from companies with government contracts like Amazon, Lockheed Martin, and Google — a plan that has raised alarm over significant conflicts of interest.

The construction was halted recently after a federal court ruledthe project must be approved by Congress, but an appeals court this month allowed the building to continue while it reviews the ruling.

On Monday evening, the US Department of Justice also filed a motion — which observers noted appeared to be written in the same style the president frequently uses in his social media posts — demanding that US District Judge Richard Leon dissolve his previous injunction blocking the project.

The motion started by claiming the name of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the nonprofit that sued over the ballroom construction, is “FAKE.”

“They suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS,” reads the filing.

The motion started by claiming the name of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the nonprofit that sued over the ballroom construction, is “FAKE.”

“They suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS,” reads the filing.

Graham said Monday that the ballroom should be paid for with $400 million in taxpayer funds collected in the form of national park fees and customs fees, with the private funding Trump secured going to extra costs like fine china.

The senator insisted the American public, whose approval of the president stood at 40% in one monthly survey in March, would support the bill.

“If you don’t think $400 million of taxpayer money is a good investment to create a secure facility at the White House, then I disagree. I bet you 90% of Americans would love to have a better facility,” said Graham.

Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation.

https://truthout.org/articles/republican-senators-push-for-400m-in-taxpayer-funds-to-build-trumps-ballroom/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

 

WE HATE TRUMP — BUT LOVE CHANDELIERS.... WE HOPE THAT THE ARCHITECT(S) HAS PLANNED FOR A LARGE KITCHEN THAT CAN PREPARE A TEN COURSE MEAL FOR 650 GUESTS, AS WELL AS SOME MAGA [MEGA] RESTROOMS WITH MAGNA CARTA TOILET PAPER [OR TRUMP DOLLARS SHEETS] AND ENOUGH SPACE FOR 300 [ROBOTS?] WAITERS AND 75 CHEFS WORKING THE CELEB OCCASIONS, SUCH AS THE 250th ANNIVERSARY OF BULLY "YAMERIKA"....

weak.....

 

The latest assassination attempt on US President Donald Trump was not only a complete security failure but a product of systemic weakness that may even be deliberate, a special forces veteran of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has told RT. 

Cole Tomas Allen, a 31‑year‑old teacher from California, has been charged with trying to assassinate the US president during a dinner event at the Washington Hilton on Saturday. Allen had reportedly checked into the hotel the day before. On the day of the attack, he used an internal stairwell to get to the hotel’s terrace level where the event was held. Armed with a pump-action shotgun, a semi-automatic handgun, and three knives, Allen rushed through the metal detector frame and engaged in a gunfight with Secret Service agents. He was apprehended just a few meters from the ballroom.

Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Andrey Popov, a veteran of the FSB’s elite Alpha Group anti‑terrorism unit, has argued that the Secret Service made a number of blatant “organizational mistakes” and suggested that its repeated failures to prevent attacks on the American leader are “part of the system.”

According to Popov, such an incident would have never happened if the Security Service had followed standard security and anti-terrorism procedures and had done its due diligence ahead of the event, such as properly vetting all the hotel guests, reviewing building plans, sealing doors and ventilation, setting up proper metal detectors, and stationing additional security forces. “In a decent hotel, a person from the budget zone simply cannot physically get into the VIP zone,” he said.

In Russia, such an incident could have never taken place, Popov argued, noting that any sort of attack on the government’s top leadership could likely only be attempted by a very large organization, such as a foreign power or a major terrorist organization. 

He pointed out that even security systems in the Moscow Metro are of a much higher standard than at the Trump dinner, with metal detectors that cannot be physically bypassed and multiple security officers in high traffic areas. “Moscow can afford this, but the Hilton hotel apparently cannot,” he remarked.

Popov suggested that the Security Services’ repeated failures indicate an “organizational problem in the protection of US presidents” which is “not accidental, but part of the system.”

“There is a systematic destruction of the Secret Service which is not being allowed to develop or strengthen,”Popov said, pointing to continued underfunding of personnel, reorganization, and reshuffling based on “idiotic gender preferences.”

According to Popov, the Secret Service appears to be intentionally kept this way to allow “certain forces”to have “the possibility of physically eliminating the US president” if he “does something against their will.”

“This is not even only about Trump. This has probably been going on since Kennedy. So that the president feels, as we say, someone’s hot breath on his back if he suddenly misbehaves and does not listen to someone’s advice,” Popov suggested.

At the same time, Popov admitted that there are certain abnormalities in the latest attack on Trump, suggesting it could have been staged. He, as well as a number of keen-eyed users online, have noted the unusually calm response of some of the attendees to the gunshots and even Trump’s own demeanor during and after the incident. 

“To him, it did not seem like a surprise,” Popov said, adding that “Americans actively use such things to interrupt an information wave that is unfavorable to them at that moment.”

“We see that already in the news summary. Nobody is reading the US reports on the war on Iran. Everyone is only laughing. Iran is winning. And that, in my opinion, does not make Trump very happy.”

Popov predicted that, as with the previous assassination attempts on Trump, nobody will be held responsible for this latest incident, and that no changes will be made in the Secret Service, which must be “kept in a deprived state” to allow further attempts on presidents.

“It is part of their democracy. If they suddenly elect the wrong president, the truly democratic forces must have the ability to correct the situation by eliminating him.”

https://www.rt.com/news/639249-us-secret-service-deliberately-weak/

 

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         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

no shooter?....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGrYmg_zNEk

OH NO: The shooter WASN’T THE SHOOTER?

 

New evidence suggests the White House Correspondents’ Dinner suspect may not have fired shots, and the injury could be friendly fire

 

 

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PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….