Solicitor General John Sauer used the threats against Trump’s life to bolster his argument at the Supreme Court about the need for a new White House ballroom with extra security.
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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s administration formally called the missile threat against him while flying out of a NATO conference in Turkey an assassination attempt, officially acknowledging the threat that forced him to change planes.
The announcement came in a filing Aug. 14 that asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s block on construction of a White House ballroom. But the judge has blocked only construction aboveground while allowing work to continue on underground security infrastructure.
Threats against Trump are widely publicized. Trump said at a news conference at the NATO conference July 8 that he was “No. 1 on the kill list for Iran.” But the latest court filing reinforced the seriousness of the threat to the administration.
Trump had flown to the NATO conference in Turkey aboard a plane donated by Qatar that didn’t have all the security measures of previous Boeing 747 aircraft that carry the president. Trump announced that he was taking an older Air Force One to leave Turkey. But then Trump secretly left that plane aboard a catering truck with a few close aides and flew on another military jet.
“I guess there was a threat out there,” Trump told reporters afterward. “I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats.”
Solicitor General John Sauer, who represents the administration at the Supreme Court, said in the filing that Trump had been the target of a number of assassination attempts, which is why an “updated East Wing complex is absolutely required.”
The filing cited “the threat of a missile attack against Air Force One on July 8.”
Sauer also listed the gunman who breached security at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April, the gunman who opened fire at the west entrance of the White House complex, a conspiracy to deploy drones at the UFC Freedom 250 event on the South Lawn in June, the gunman caught after staking out Trump’s Palm Beach golf course, and the 2024 shooting of Trump in the ear in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Sauer told the Supreme Court that the security needs are part of the reason the justices should lift a judge’s block on ballroom construction. Plans call for bomb shelters, a state-of-the-art hospital and top-secret military structures and equipment to be built beneath the ballroom.
“The President of the United States of America is not a tenant, but rather the sole, elected head of the Executive Branch, and Congress has authorized him to renovate, secure, and protect the White House and its grounds, as other Presidents have been allowed to do, without exception,” Sauer told the high court.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon blocked construction of the ballroom in March for lack of “express authorization from Congress.” The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the block in August.
But Leon specified that he was blocking only aboveground construction on the project and not underground security facilities.
“My Amended Order does not, however, stop below-ground construction of national security facilities, work necessary to provide for presidential security, and construction necessary to protect and secure the White House and the construction site itself,” Leon wrote.