The suspected shooter, who wrote in an alleged manifesto that he was targeting members of the Trump administration, has been identified as 31-year-old Cole Allen of California. He has been charged by the Justice Department on multiple counts, including attempting to assassinate the president, transportation of a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.

Within hours of the shooting, several GOP lawmakers from both the House and Senate announced they would introduce legislation to approve the project, which has stalled amid legal challenges. On April 27, at least five different proposals to build the ballroom were floating around Capitol Hill, with more following in subsequent days.

On the House side, Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Randy Fine (R-FL) have announced separate plans to introduce legislation to authorize the ballroom. On the Senate side, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Katie Britt (R-AL), and Eric Schmitt (R-MO) are backing legislation to appropriate at least $400 million to build the ballroom. Other Senate ballroom proposals are expected.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has also called for the ballroom to be built after the shooting. So far, he’s the only congressional Democrat to support it after the shooting attempt.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on April 27 called the ballroom a “vanity project that resulted from the destruction that was unauthorized of the East Wing of the White House.”

The next day, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blasted the ballroom plan.

“As our nation wages Donald Trump’s reckless war with a dangerous and erratic enemy, and as the Department of Homeland Security is still not funded because of the hijinks within the president’s own party, Donald Trump has decided to focus on a taxpayer-funded, gold-plated ballroom instead of focusing on these important national security issues,” Schumer said in a Senate floor speech. “Trump’s values are perverse.”

The president’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom proposal has been the subject of a legal challenge from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has argued the project needs congressional approval. District Judge Richard Leon, a Bush appointee, has halted the construction project as the legal case plays out.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who has at times broken from Trump on key issues, said in a statement he would introduce legislation to allow the construction to “proceed without new taxpayer costs and make it easier for Congress to review major White House projects going forward.”

Fine told the Washington Examiner during a brief interview that after the WHCD attack, “if it wasn’t clear before, it should be clear to everyone that the president needs a secure place to have large events.”

The Florida Republican said his bill, titled the Build the Ballroom Act, would preempt lawsuits against the ballroom and make it explicit that the president has statutory authority to construct the ballroom on White House grounds.

Meanwhile, Boebert, while saying she does not believe congressional approval is needed for the project, introduced legislation on April 28 to give congressional approval for Trump to build a ballroom on the White House grounds over the now-demolished East Wing.

The legislation, titled the TRUMP Ballroom Act, would simply give the president of the United States authorization to “design and construct a ballroom facility on the grounds of the White House.” It would also give the president “sole” design and approval authority for the ballroom.

If you build it, will they come?

Trump has said his White House ballroom proposal, which is expected to cost $400 million to construct, cannot be “built fast enough” in the aftermath of the shooting.

“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,” Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday. “This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough! 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.”

Trump has previously stated the ballroom’s construction would be funded by private donors and not the American taxpayer. House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) told reporters on April 27 that no funding would be included for the project in a party-line budget reconciliation bill focused on funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, despite calls from Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) to do so.

However, Graham told reporters that same day the legislation he was introducing alongside Britt and Schmitt would seek to authorize $400 million for the ballroom’s construction. Graham said the money would come from customs fees levied on imports. The South Carolina Republican is calling on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to expedite the legislation.

It’s unlikely the White House ballroom will receive significant Democratic support beyond Fetterman. Even with the at-times renegade Democrat siding with GOP colleagues, in the 53-47 Republican majority Senate, a filibuster, needing 60 votes to overcome, could kill funding for the project.

A Democratic-led filibuster has prevented full funding of the Department of Homeland Security for approaching three months. Democrats are demanding changes in operations to ICE after a pair of immigration and deportation protester deaths in Minnesota.

Moreover, it’s not clear whether journalists would attend a White House Correspondents’ Association dinner held on government property. The dinner is organized by the White House Correspondents’ Association, which annually invites the president to attend. Trump skipped the dinner the entirety of his first term in office. And in 2025, his first year back in the White House.

Moreover, seating capacity and other logistical hurdles also would make a dinner at the would-be ballroom difficult, noted Doug Landry, founder of 50 Thirteen, a live events production firm, which did work for former President Joe Biden’s 2020 winning White House bid.

EIGHT THINGS THE GOP WANTS TO DEDICATE TO TRUMP, AS DEMOCRATS TRY TO CRACK DOWN ON RENAMING

“The WHCD is never gonna be at the White House because even the new ballroom, if it’s even built at the proposed size, will only seat about 1000 people in 20k square feet,” Landry wrote in an April 26 X post.

“The Hilton’s ballroom is 30k square feet and they squeeze 2,500 people in for seated dinners the only other viable option in town is at the convention center which is a massive 50,000 square feet (and would be way easier to secure).”

Hailey Bullis (@HaileyBullis1) is a congressional reporter for the Washington Examiner.