Congressional Republicans are rallying around Trump’s White House ballroom project

Three Senate Republicans on Monday announced they will introduce legislation authorizing $400 million in funding for President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom following the shooting that disrupted the White House Correspondents’ Dinner over the weekend.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said they were introducing the bill to fund a project important to national security.

“A lot of people I think initially saw it as a futility… I don’t,” Graham said at a press conference on Monday. “I’m sure if there was a presidential ballpark near the White House, this guy wouldn’t even get in.”

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was cut short Saturday after a gunman rushed to the hotel where the annual event was being held, although he was stopped by Secret Service agents before entering the room where Trump, Vice President JD Vance, other administration officials and members of Congress were gathered.

Trump after the incident immediately called the construction of the ballroom as a more secure option than the Washington Hilton Hotel, where the event was held. Earlier, the president said that this program will be paid for using private donations.

House Republicans have taken up those calls two days ago, announcing plans to introduce more bills to pave the way for its construction.

In addition to Graham, Britt and Schmitt, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., announced Monday that he would introduce legislation on the floor Tuesday that would move “the project forward” and would not require “new taxpayer costs.” Even in the Republican-controlled House and Senate, spending $400 million in taxpayer money to pay for a project that Trump says already has private funding could be a tough sell.

However, several GOP members in the House, including Reps. Florida’s Randy Fine and Colorado’s Lauren Boebert have also signed on to introduce ballroom bills.

And one of the Democratic Alliance, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, also asked his colleagues to support funding for the ballroom project.

According to Graham, the cost of the ballroom will be covered by the tax. He said he asked Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., to expedite the process. Graham, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he has not ruled out trying to include it in the tax and spending bill currently working through Congress to fund the controversial immigration agency at the Department of Homeland Security, which has been closed since February.

Construction of the ballroom was blocked earlier this month by a federal judge on the grounds that Trump did not get approval from Congress.

Britt, who heads the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security, called the legal challenge ridiculous.

“President Trump was smart to ask for this, and now is the time for us to step up and actually move forward. And more than that, I hope this is a wake-up call about DHS funding,” Britt said.

The Secret Service is one of the many agencies funded by DHS. The White House has used funding from the 2025 tax and spending bill known as the One Big Beautiful Bill to pay DHS salaries for the time being, but the administration has warned that funding could end at the end of this month.

The Senate unanimously passed a DHS bill in late March that would fund the entire agency except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol.

House Republicans rejected that bill, instead choosing another way to fully fund the agency, which Democrats rejected without changes to the law’s immigration enforcement policy.