In what may be the most unhinged side effect of an assassination attempt in American history, the Justice Department is now apparently in the ballroom construction business. According to reporting by The Hill, the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner has set two parallel wheels in motion: keeping the alleged gunman locked up, and building President Trump a swanky new event space inside the White House.
The suspect and the charges
Cole Tomas Allen, the alleged gunman who disrupted the annual WHCD gathering, is already facing three criminal charges, one of which includes attempting to assassinate President Trump. That is, to put it lightly, a very bad menu of charges to be staring down. Top Justice Department officials are committed to keeping Allen detained as the case proceeds, according to The Hill's reporting.
The WHCD dinner, traditionally a glitzy Washington ritual where journalists and politicians do their best to pretend they like each other for one night, has now become the backdrop for a federal criminal case with assassination-attempt-level stakes. Not exactly the vibe the press corps was going for.
The ballroom twist nobody asked for
Here is where it gets genuinely weird. As a direct consequence of this incident, the Justice Department has apparently committed to supporting the construction of a dedicated ballroom at the White House itself. The idea, it seems, is that hosting large events off-site creates security vulnerabilities that a purpose-built on-site venue could reduce.
Trump, a man whose entire brand is essentially "gold-plated ballrooms," is now getting a White House ballroom partially justified by a security rationale. You truly cannot make this up. Whether this will be a tasteful diplomatic hall or something with Trump's signature aesthetic flair remains to be seen, but the irony is thick enough to spread on toast.
What happens next
According to The Hill, the legal case against Allen is expected to move forward with prosecutors pushing for continued detention. The assassination attempt charge alone carries enormous consequences, and federal prosecutors appear to be treating this with the full weight the charges demand.
Meanwhile, Washington's annual press-politician mixer - already on shaky cultural ground in recent years - now has an even more complicated legacy to wrestle with. The question of whether the WHCD dinner survives in its current form, moves permanently to a more secure venue, or simply gets replaced by whatever a White House ballroom situation looks like, remains genuinely open.
One man tried to make history for dark reasons. He may have inadvertently also made interior design history. Only in Washington.
