"The ballroom is, to the confusion of many, a top priority for Trump. Indeed, it has been one since long before he launched himself into politics."

"Way back in 2010, Trump called David Axelrod, at the time a senior adviser to President Obama, and offered to build a ballroom for the White House. The offer was not accepted. Barely two weeks into his second term, Trump began talking up his ballroom dream once again. Within months, he had demolished the East Wing of the White House and construction was set to begin...."

I'm reading "What Does the Correspondents Dinner Have to Do With Trump’s Ballroom Project? The case may test just how far national security deference by the courts to the executive can stretch" (Lawfare).

"The area underneath the erstwhile East Wing has long been known to house an emergency bunker.... Over the course of litigation, the government insisted more and more explicitly that the harm to national security 'cannot simply be cleaved off' by permitting only below-ground work to continue while barring above-ground progress.... The attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner has now become part of this case.... 'D.C. does not have a secure space for large high-profile events.... Without such a location,' the Justice Department argues, 'the President is thus put to the choice of risking his safety by attending events in unsecure venues—be it the tents on the White House lawn, or places like the Washington Hilton (which is now home to two attempted presidential assassinations)—or forgoing those events entirely—to the detriment of his constitutional responsibility to 'speak[] to and on behalf of the American people.'..."