“The one good thing is now everybody knows how badly needed it is,” Trump said Sunday on Fox News.

Trump, who has been frustrated by the legal challenges to his US$400 million construction project, said at a Saturday night news conference and again on Sunday that security concerns are a key reason behind his proposed 90,000-square-foot space.

The press dinner is a mainstay of the Washington social calendar and is planned by the White House Correspondents’ Association, a private organisation. The ballroom, if it is built, would be used for state dinners and other presidential events planned by the White House, not outside organisations.

But Trump did not mention that distinction in his post or comments about the project.

“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 wrote Sunday on his Truth Social platform.

There is no evidence that the entities he mentioned have been calling for a ballroom for decades.

The president has fixated on his ballroom project even as he oversees a war in Iran and multiple other domestic and foreign policy priorities. A former real estate developer in New York, Trump had the east wing of the White House torn down last year to make room for the new space, alarming preservationists and drawing sharp criticism from Democrats.

In late March, a Washington federal judge moved to halt Trump’s ballroom construction until he gets approval from Congress.

On Sunday, the justice department sent a letter asking the National Trust for Historic Preservation to dismiss the suit, citing the attack on the dinner, which was hosted at the Washington Hilton.

“The White House ballroom will ensure the safety and security of the president for decades to come and prevent future assassination attempts on the president at the Washington Hilton,” wrote Brett Shumate, assistant attorney general for the civil division.

He added that the US plans to ask the judge on Monday morning to dissolve the injunction and dismiss the case.