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In the aftermath of the attempted assassination at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, President Donald Trump had one thing on his mind, the same one thing that is always on his mind.

“We need the ballroom,” he told reporters at a hastily organized press conference following the canceled dinner. He would follow up on social media the next morning, observing that this “event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House.”

Trump’s analysis of the evening started a feeding frenzy among Republican legislators to score suck-up points.

For months, construction of the ballroom has been of obsessive importance to Trump. He posts endlessly about it. He interrupts press conferences and meetings to talk about it. He interrupts Medal of Honor ceremonies to talk about it. He goes on little shopping trips to pick the marble. The presidency is a stressful job. Since Trump doesn’t like dogs, he relies on this project, instead, to bring him comfort.

Construction on the ballroom has been stop-and-go since late March, when a federal judge halted progress after deeming it to be wildly illegal absent congressional approval. Congressional Republicans had been........

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