BroadChain, April 27, 13:16 - On the evening of April 25, a shooting occurred at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner held at the Washington Hilton Hotel, prompting Trump to evacuate urgently. Hours later, at a press conference, he directly pivoted to promoting his controversial $400 million White House ballroom project, claiming the facility would be "larger and safer." The project is funded by a non-profit foundation, with donors including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, as well as crypto exchanges Coinbase and Gemini. It is widely believed that these donations are intended to secure Trump's favorable stance on technology and crypto policies.
The shooter, 31-year-old California man Cole Allen, exchanged fire with law enforcement at the hotel lobby security checkpoint. A Secret Service agent was shot but is not in life-threatening condition. This marks the third assassination attempt against Trump, setting a record in U.S. presidential history. The previous two occurred at a 2024 campaign rally in Pennsylvania and at Mar-a-Lago. Trump emphasized on Truth Social that if the ballroom had already been built, "this could have been avoided," and criticized related lawsuits as "ridiculous."
Democratic Senator John Fetterman publicly supported the ballroom construction, and the Department of Justice also sent a letter to a historical preservation organization urging them to drop the lawsuit, arguing that the shooting proves the ballroom is "critical to presidential security." Trump announced that the dinner would be re-held within 30 days. The crypto industry is closely watching this project due to the involvement of Coinbase and Gemini, with its political implications far outweighing the shooting incident itself.