What to Know
After shots reportedly rang out during the 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Donald Trump wasted no time in posting on Truth Social about how it proves that he needs his ballroom at the White House. It’s like trying to convince your parents that you need that puppy because it might protect your home from non-existent intruders. Then, the White House shared a screenshot of that post in a post on X (formerly Twitter), and it drove home the idea that politicians want to ask for something major as a result of gun violence when kids are dealing with gun violence daily at school.
People began joking on social media that, if the White House needs a ballroom to keep Trump and everyone else safe during these kinds of events, then schools need ballrooms too. I mean, some gun reform and help across the board might also do some good, but hey, if a ballroom is going to stop violence of this magnitude, which seems to be the idea behind Trump’s post, then people think schools deserve the same treatment.
The White House’s ballroom tweet was blasted as “absurd.”
Build the White House Ballroom. pic.twitter.com/3CBVZtf4cK
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 26, 2026
The night after the reported shooting at the Washington, D.C. event, Trump posted about it on Truth Social. He used the opportunity to share why he thinks it’s a prime example of why he needs that $400 million ballroom. For safety, of course. He wrote in his post, which was then shared on X by the White House, “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.”
He added that, had the White House Correspondents’ Dinner been held at a safe and secure place at the White House, there wouldn’t have been a threat to anyone.
“It cannot be built fast enough!” He wrote. “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.”
When the White house shared the screenshot of Trump’s post, someone replied with, “Trump’s building a golden ballroom bunker cuz one dinner party got spicy? Bro really turning the White House into his personal Mar-a-Lago fortress. Next up: diamond-plated golf carts for ‘evacuations.'”
Another person wrote, “You guys staged this just for a ballroom?well at least you didn’t kill anyone this time.”
Trump critics are calling for Republicans to understand what kids go through at school.
After the terrifying shooting last night, the urgent and common sense answer is clear:
— Books Behind Borders (@MHTruthUltra) April 26, 2026
Every school in America should have a private $400 million ballroom.
If a potential shooting at a place full of frightened people who are forced to shelter in place or evacuate means they need a ballroom, then kids who experience that same thing across America should get the same thing, right? That’s what one user wrote in their X post about gun violence, the shooting that was reported, and school shootings that kids fear every day.
“After the terrifying shooting last night, the urgent and common sense answer is clear: Every school in America should have a private $400 million ballroom,” they wrote.
Someone responded to the post with: “Oh, that’s just silly. If you protect the children, then what are the elites going to eat?”
Another wrote, “If children made money, helped the elites or society in some way, the administrations would value them. Since it takes time to make little workers and they are a draw on society, they are dispensable. This is a long-time problem of perspective. If we invested in them, we’d thrive.”
People called out the Secret Service too.
The whole issue about the White House and Trump promoting the apparent need for a new ballroom that costs almost half a billion dollars has some people asking why money is not instead invested in the Secret Service. If those are the individuals meant to protect Trump and he is so fearful of armed intruders, then shouldn’t his Secret Service agents be chosen and trained more properly?
“How about instead of constructing a multi-million-dollar ballroom on the tax payers’ dime, you just get secret service agents who can actually do their job????” Someone wrote on X. “And when someone almost gets you shot (Butler) instead of promoting them, maybe fire them?????”
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