In the chaotic minutes after news broke that a gunman had attempted to breach security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, a familiar pattern unfolded on social media. A chorus of pro-Trump influencers and officials arrived at the same eerily specific and singular conclusion: The country needs Donald Trump’s ballroom.
It’s quite the departure from when a gunman shot and killed Charlie Kirk in September. Then the MAGA movement immediately called for a campaign of political repression. After Saturday’s attack at the Washington Hilton, MAGA media looked closer to home, immediately leveraging the scare as a reason to build the $400 million White House ballroom. Screenshots of pro-MAGA accounts sharing the same messaging quickly circulated on X shortly after the suspected gunman, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was stopped rushing past a security checkpoint armed with two firearms and multiple knives, apparently intending to attack Trump and members of his Cabinet.
