Trump faces his third assassination attempt, then turns to rally support for the White House ballroom project; Coinbase, Gemini, and other crypto companies are all donors.

Author: Tina Nguyen (Senior Reporter at The Verge)

Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide Guide: After a shooting incident at a White House press corps dinner, following Trump’s urgent evacuation, that same night he pivoted the topic at the press conference to the White House ballroom he is building—a controversial project costing $400 million, funded by donations from technology and crypto companies. Coinbase, Gemini, Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are all on the donation list. The political trading logic behind the ballroom is more worth the cryptocurrency industry’s attention than the gunfire itself.

On the evening of April 25, a gunman attempted to breach the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner (WHCD). Trump, Vice President Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and senior adviser Stephen Miller were all present. Hundreds of members of the White House press corps were also at the venue.

The shooter exchanged gunfire with law enforcement at a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton Hotel, but failed to break through the security line to the underground banquet hall. A U.S. Secret Service agent was shot, but is expected to be unharmed because they were wearing a bulletproof vest. The suspect was detained on the spot.

Within hours of Trump being urgently evacuated, he did the one thing he’s best at: turning an assassination attempt into a sales pitch for his agenda.

Directly promoting the ballroom at the press conference

That evening at the White House press conference, Trump told reporters that the Washington Hilton “is not a particularly safe building. I didn’t want to say this, but that’s why we’re building all the facilities we planned at the White House. That room is bigger and much safer.”

The next morning, he doubled down on Truth Social: “What happened last night is exactly why, for the past 150 years, the military, the Secret Service, and law enforcement have been demanding the construction of a large secure ballroom at the White House. If we had the currently under-construction military-grade top-secret ballroom, this would never have happened. The construction pace isn’t fast enough!”

He also called the lawsuit over the ballroom “absurd,” demanding an immediate withdrawal: “Nothing should interfere with construction. The project is within budget and significantly ahead of schedule for the construction timeline!”

$400 million ballroom: crypto companies’ “credentials”

The White House ballroom is one of the most controversial projects of Trump’s second term. Last October, Trump abruptly ordered the demolition of the East Wing, kicking off a $400 million build. Last month, a federal judge halted the construction.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued, alleging that before demolishing the East Wing, Trump failed to obtain congressional approval as required under federal law.

But what truly has the crypto industry paying attention is the project’s donor list. The ballroom is funded by a nonprofit foundation, and Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, as well as crypto companies Coinbase and Gemini, are all included among the donors. It is widely believed that these donations are corporations’ attempts to secure favorable attitudes from Trump on technology and crypto policies.

Suspect and the incident timeline

Initial reports say the suspect, 31-year-old Cole Allen, from Torrance, California, was a paying guest at the Washington Hilton. Security at the hotel lobby was less stringent than at the banquet hall entrance, and Allen launched the assault from the hotel’s guest passageway.

Law enforcement believes Allen’s target was Trump and the senior government officials present. The specific motive is still under investigation. The FBI’s behavioral analysis unit has been brought in.

This is the third assassination attempt Trump has faced, making him the U.S. president to have encountered the most assassination attempts in American history. The first occurred at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024, when a bullet grazed his ear. The second happened that same year at Mar-a-Lago, where federal agents shot and killed a man who attempted to fire a weapon on the golf course. The Washington Hilton itself also has a record: in 1981, John Hinckley Jr. shot Ronald Reagan outside the hotel.

Political fallout has already begun

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman posted on X supporting the construction of the ballroom: “We’re in the very front row. That venue was never designed to accommodate the entire U.S. government transition of power sequence. Stop the TDS—build the ballroom.”

The Department of Justice also sent a letter to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, requesting that the lawsuit be withdrawn, saying the shooting incident proves the ballroom is “critical to the president’s security.”

Trump said the dinner would be held again within 30 days. In his prepared remarks, he initially planned to slam the media: “I fought to stay. I was ready to tear it apart.”