Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche put a reporter in his place during a press conference following the third assassination attempt on President Donald Trump’s life on April 25, 2026, after he asked if the American people should find it acceptable that he be confined to a ballroom at the White House. Just hours after the shooting, Trump addressed the country about the incident and called the venue where the event was held “demonstrably” unsafe.
Referencing a post he shared, the reporter asked Blanche, ” It says that the Washington Hilton is, quote, demonstrably unsafe for the president United States. It said that with the ballroom, that Trump will no longer need to venture beyond the safety of the White House perimeter, just engaging with those lines. Was there an assessment in advance of the dinner that the Hilton was demonstrably unsafe?”
“And if so, why was President Trump allowed to attend it, and then separately, just the idea that by building the ballroom, that President Trump wouldn’t need to go outside of the confines of the White House. I mean, is that something that the American people, you know, should find acceptable, that the President would have to be for major events confined to the White House?” the reporter added.
Blanche started his rebuttal by explaining what President Trump meant when he said the venue was “demonstrably” unsafe. “That is obviously not what he means by that,” Blanche said, going on to add, “If you — and the fact that that question comes with respect to President Trump, is laughable in the extreme. I mean laughable in the extreme. You have a president who willingly speaks with you guys multiple times a day, I would say seven days a week.”
The acting attorney general then pointed out that Trump travels the country on a regular basis. “He is active all over the country. I think with that, with that, keeping it to the four corners of that statement when he says demonstrably, it’s demonstrated by what happened on Saturday night.” He continued by saying, “I know that the director of the Secret Service will be focused on making sure that we always keep him safe.”
Blanche then told the reporter that Trump, members of the press in attendance, and other critical Cabinet members were all safe from the shooter inside the room. “And by the way, as we said before, and as anybody that was in that room knows, we were safe. We were safe. We heard a lot of loud noises that at the time, many of us thought could be guns going off.”
“It was mostly plates falling because of the staff understandably were running so, so my reaction to that is, I’ll leave anything with respect to security up to the great men and women of the Secret Service,” Blanche said. He then went on to describe the White House ballroom project as being designed in a somewhat similar fashion to the room used during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
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“But, but when we talk about having an environment like the ballroom, it’s an environment like what you saw last night. So an environment where you have a unique blend of cabinet members, leadership of this country, leadership of Congress, reporters and members of the public coming together for an event like that, that’s different than other public facing situations, which I have no doubt President Trump will continue to do, as he said he would on Saturday night,” he concluded.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video