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Year: 2026

Republicans rush to green light White House ballroom following third Trump assassination scare

Republicans rush to green light White House ballroom following third Trump assassination scare

Republicans are rushing to give President Donald Trump’s controversial ballroom addition to the White House the congressional go-ahead after a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Lawmakers argue that Trump’s desire to build a ballroom at the White House — which ground to a halt after being snarled in litigation — would provide an ideal secure venue for future events following the shooting at the Washington Hilton on Saturday. Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., announced he would try to fast-track a bill to give congressional approval for construction of the ballroom in the Senate when the upper chamber returns this week. HOUSE GOP PUSHES BACK ON SENATE’S ‘SKINNY’ PLAN TO END RECORD-BREAKING DHS SHUTDOWN He argued that “a president of any party should be able to host events in a secure area without attendees worrying about their safety.” “It is an embarrassment to the strongest nation on Earth that we cannot host gatherings in our nation’s capital, including ones attended by our president, without the threat of violence and attempted assassinations,” Sheehy said in a statement. It’s an about-face on Capitol Hill for Republicans, who, since Trump first announced his plans to build a ballroom last year, have largely kept their distance from the issue. And it’s one spurred by the shooting on Saturday night, when Cole Allen was subdued by federal law enforcement after exchanging gunfire near the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, where Trump and his Cabinet, along with hundreds of guests, were seated for the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. But a lawsuit and an ensuing court-ordered injunction against the 90,000-square-foot, $400 million gilded behemoth — which was being built where the White House’s East Wing once stood — have thrown the future of the project into question. SENATE GOP RAMS THROUGH BLUEPRINT TO BANKROLL ICE, BORDER PATROL THROUGH END OF TRUMP ERA A federal court ordered in March that the construction end without congressional approval. That ruling was later appealed to allow construction to continue below ground for what Trump previously described as a “shed” for a military complex. After the shooting, Trump pushed for construction to continue. “We need the ballroom,” Trump said at a news conference Saturday night. “That’s why Secret Service, that’s why the military are demanding it.” TRUMP ADMIN URGES RESTORING BALLROOM CONSTRUCTION IN EMERGENCY MOTION: ‘TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE’ Now Republicans are getting involved. Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Randy Fine, R-Fla., like Sheehy, are planning to introduce legislation that would give congressional approval to the project. “I don’t believe congressional approval is required for the project, but if it’ll keep activist judges on the sideline, so be it,” Boebert said on X. The latest legislative push in the lower chamber comes during a week full of deadlines and must-do items for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. Among them is consideration of the Senate’s budget blueprint to fund immigration operations for the remainder of Trump’s presidency. At least one lawmaker, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wants any consideration of the blueprint to “provide for construction of a secure ballroom on White House grounds.” For now, it’s not entirely a partisan issue. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., one of the few Democrats at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, argued that rancor between the aisles should be put aside to support ballroom construction. “That venue wasn’t built to accommodate an event with the line of succession for the U.S. government,” Fetterman said on X. “After witnessing last night, drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom for events exactly like these.”

Supreme Court hands GOP a redistricting win by striking down lower court block on Texas map

Supreme Court hands GOP a redistricting win by striking down lower court block on Texas map

The Supreme Court handed down a victory for the Republican Party on Monday, striking down a lower court’s ruling that had blocked Texas’ plans for redrawing its congressional districts. The court hung its order on reasoning from a previous ruling in Abbott v. League of United Latin American Citizens but did not elaborate. The three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented. The decision comes after the Supreme Court temporarily greenlit the state’s map in December and California’s map in February. Both states spearheaded the mid-cycle redistricting fights that have now been cropping up across the country. The high court’s approval of both states’ maps, giving Republicans and Democrats five-seat advantages, respectively, served to cancel each other’s efforts out ahead of the 2026 midterms. DOJ BACKS TEXAS IN SUPREME COURT FIGHT OVER REPUBLICAN-DRAWN MAP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, had asked the Supreme Court last year to pause a three-judge panel’s ruling in the Western District of Texas that found 2-1 that race was too much of a factor in its redraw and that the state had improperly attempted to pack Latino and Black voters into new districts. The Department of Justice also chimed in, telling the high court to intervene and reverse the lower court decision, saying Texas’ choice to change its map was driven by purely “partisan objectives,” not racial objectives, which could violate the Voting Rights Act. The voting and immigrant rights groups who challenged Texas and Abbott claimed that the map was an illegal racial gerrymander. The high court granted a 6-3 temporary stay in December, finding in an unsigned order that the groups had committed “at least two serious errors,” including that they did not extend the Texas legislature the “presumption of legislative good faith.” REAGAN-APPOINTED JUDGE TORCHES COLLEAGUES IN TEXAS MAP FIGHT Second, the groups did not offer an alternative map that served Texas’ stated political needs, the justices said. The high court said in the order that the lower court should also not have “interfered with an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections.” In the dissent, Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee, criticized the conservative majority for its “eagerness to playact a district court.”  “This Court’s stay guarantees that Texas’s new map, with all its enhanced partisan advantage, will govern next year’s elections for the House of Representatives,” Kagan wrote. “And this Court’s stay ensures that many Texas citizens, for no good reason, will be placed in electoral districts because of their race. And that result, as this Court has pronounced year in and year out, is a violation of the Constitution.”

Obama sets internet ablaze with ‘sick’ reaction to the ‘motive’ of WHCD shooter

Obama sets internet ablaze with ‘sick’ reaction to the ‘motive’ of WHCD shooter

Former President Barack Obama sparked an online firestorm over the weekend after his X post discussing the “motive” of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooter went viral. “Although we don’t yet have the details about the motives behind last night’s shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, it’s incumbent upon all us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy,” Obama posted on X on Sunday evening, roughly 24 hours after President Trump and top officials were whisked out of the Washington Hilton Hotel when shots rang out from a man who stormed security during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. “It’s also a sobering reminder of the courage and sacrifice that the U.S. Secret Service Agents show every day. I’m grateful to them — and thankful that the agent who was shot is going to be okay.” Obama’s post has been viewed nearly 52 million times and sparked outrage from conservatives, who pointed to a manifesto left by the shooter and other details of the attack that they say show the motive was to harm Trump and his Cabinet. WHCD SHOOTING SUSPECT PLANNED TO TARGET TRUMP OFFICIALS, MANIFESTO REVEALS “Let’s not pretend to be this clueless about motive, @BarackObama,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin posted on X. “The attempted assassin put out an anti-Trump manifesto about wanting to kill Trump Admin officials, minutes before trying to storm a ballroom filled with the President, VP, Cabinet, and many others from his Admin.” Former FBI Co-Deputy Director Dan Bongino simply replied, “Are you kidding?” “There is a manifesto, and this is why you are the problem,” Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., posted on X.  “Oh come on,” reacted former Department of Homeland Security press secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “There is no ambiguity. It was a politically motivated attack driven by anti-Trump and anti-Christian bile. It’s wrong to downplay or obscure the obvious motive.” Journalist Emma-Jo Morris posted on X, “It’s crazy how irrelevant Obama has become. Just reduced to posting bluesky-tier cope and meaningless cliches, ‘incumbent upon all’ etc.” WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER SUSPECT CHECKED INTO HILTON HOTEL ONE DAY BEFORE THE SHOOTING: SOURCES The Republican National Committee commented, “You are so SICK! Law enforcement officers confirmed this radicalized Leftist was targeting President Trump and his administration last night. Why are you lying?” Popular independent journalist Nick Shirley also joined in, urging Obama to “call it out for what it is.” “Wdym by ‘although’? It’s obvious what the motive was,” wrote Shirley. Heritage Foundation media fellow Tim Young took a similar line, telling the former president, “Don’t pretend you don’t know.” “The details were out early this morning and it was clear he was a leftist trying to harm as many people in Trump’s cabinet as possible,” Young wrote. WHO IS COLE ALLEN? CALIFORNIA MAN NAMED AS SUSPECT IN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER SHOOTING “Agreed on condemning political violence, but you know what his motives were,” “Charlie Kirk Show” Executive Producer Andrew Kolvet posted on X. “This is a lie—the gunman’s manifesto was published six hours ago,” political commentator Batya Ungar-Sargon posted on X. “But it’s also a confession—an admission that the motive is damning to President Obama’s side, hence the need to lie.” Authorities have identified Cole Allen, a 31-year-old California resident, as the suspect who allegedly opened fire during the annual event attended by Trump and senior administration officials. Federal law enforcement officials confirmed to Fox News Digital that after Allen’s arrest, he said he intended to target Trump administration officials and had prepared a manifesto detailing his intent, while also sharing anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric on social media. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro told reporters at a news conference after the shooting that Allen has been charged with two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. Pirro also said more charges are expected.  Fox News Digital reached out to Obama’s office for comment.