CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

The “Security” Case for Trump’s Ballroom: A Win-Win Proposal

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

Senate Republicans, the Associated Press reports, plan to give the Secret Service $1 billion for “security upgrades” to president Donald Trump’s  (supposedly $400 million, supposedly donation-funded) White House ballroom project.

After an assassination attempt outside the Washington Hilton ballroom hosting the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April, Republicans began boosting the ballroom itself as a presidential safety solution.

Every time the president ventures forth to environments inhabited or surrounded by the hoi polloi, they point out, the Secret Service has to create bespoke environments within otherwise open facilities  to ensure that he’s not shot at, yelled at, glared at, or annoyed. Better to keep him in a facility that’s controlled 24/7 for his safety and convenience.

That’s fair, and it occurs to me that, done rightly, adding a secure ballroom to the White........

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