The Justice Department formally characterized an Iranian missile threat against Air Force One as an "assassination attempt" in an emergency Supreme Court filing Friday, using the July incident to argue that a blocked White House ballroom project is a national security necessity.
Solicitor General John Sauer asked the Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court ruling that halted above-ground construction on a massive 90,000-square-foot ballroom complex at the White House East Wing, The Hill reported. The filing cited the July 8 threat of a missile attack against Air Force One as one of several escalating dangers that justify completing the project without delay.
The appeals court panel voted 2-1 last week to block all above-ground work on the ballroom, ruling the administration lacked congressional approval. Underground construction, including a military complex and drone port, was permitted to continue. Sauer's emergency appeal now puts the dispute directly before the Supreme Court.
The DOJ filing drew on details from a Washington Post report published this week that revealed the extent of the July 8 security scare. As President Trump prepared to depart the NATO Summit in Turkey, the Secret Service learned of an Iranian missile threat targeting Air Force One. Agents executed a covert operation: they transferred Trump from Air Force One to an alternate aircraft using a catering truck as cover.
The ruse worked well enough that the White House press pool, cabinet members, and staff all believed Trump had departed on the same plane as them. He had not. The Secret Service had warned Trump against flying under the original departure plan, and agents improvised the switch on the ground in Turkey.
Sauer folded that episode into a broader argument about presidential security. In his filing, he wrote that "President Trump has been the target of a growing number of recent assassination attempts" and that the "updated East Wing complex is absolutely required and should not be enjoined."
The administration has argued the ballroom would allow the president to attend events safely within the secure perimeter of the White House complex, eliminating the need for high-risk motorcade movements to off-site venues. Sauer's legal strategy treats the ballroom not as a luxury but as protective infrastructure, on par with hardened facilities already under construction below ground.
The DOJ's decision to label the Air Force One incident an "assassination attempt" carries weight partly because the federal government has already brought criminal charges tied to Iranian plots against Trump. In November 2024, the Justice Department unsealed an indictment against Farhad Shakeri, a 51-year-old Afghan-born Iranian government asset, charging him with a murder-for-hire conspiracy directed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. AP News reported that Shakeri was instructed in September 2024 to assemble a plan to kill Trump within seven days, with Iranian officials telling him "money's not an issue."
Federal court filings referred to Trump as "Victim-4." Fox News reported that an IRGC official directed Shakeri on October 7, 2024, to provide the kill plan. Two additional suspects, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathon Loadholt, were arrested in New York for their alleged roles in a related plot to murder Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad on U.S. soil for $100,000.
Shakeri faces multiple federal charges including murder-for-hire, conspiracy, money laundering, and material support for a foreign terrorist organization, charges that carry a combined maximum sentence exceeding 100 years. He remains at large and is believed to be living in Iran after being deported from the United States in 2008 following a 14-year robbery conviction, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Iran has denied everything. Its Foreign Ministry called the DOJ indictment "completely baseless" and blamed "Zionist and anti-Iranian circles." Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi went further, dismissing the case as a fabrication:
"As a killer does not exist in reality, scriptwriters are brought in to manufacture a third-rate comedy."
That denial landed differently in Washington. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who oversaw the original indictment, said at the time:
"There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran. We will not stand for the Iranian regime's attempts to endanger the American people and America's national security."
The Shakeri case is not the only Iranian-linked threat against Trump's circle. Federal authorities have also investigated an alleged plot targeting Ivanka Trump in retaliation for the 2020 strike that killed IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani.
The legal fight over the White House ballroom has, until now, centered on separation-of-powers questions, whether the executive branch can build a 90,000-square-foot addition to the White House complex without explicit congressional authorization. The appeals court majority said no, at least for the above-ground portion, and halted work.
Sauer's emergency appeal reframes the dispute. By invoking the July 8 missile threat and labeling it an assassination attempt, he is asking the Supreme Court to weigh the construction freeze against an active, documented threat environment. The filing does not simply argue legal authority, it argues urgency.
That threat environment extends well beyond a single missile scare. The Trump administration has convened war councils to plan expanded military responses to Iranian provocations, and the broader pattern of threats against Trump and those in his orbit has generated federal criminal cases across multiple jurisdictions.
Sen. Tom Cotton captured the mood among hawkish Republicans when the Shakeri indictment dropped. "Iran is a terrorist regime," Cotton said. "They've killed more than 1,000 Americans. The Ayatollah's attempt to assassinate President Trump is a reminder of why they must never have a nuclear weapon."
The Supreme Court has not yet acted on Sauer's emergency appeal. Several open questions remain: which circuit court issued the 2-1 ruling, who the majority and dissenting judges were, and what specific statutory basis the lower court cited for requiring congressional approval. The filing's case number and docket information have not been publicly reported.
Meanwhile, the broader security picture around Trump continues to generate law enforcement activity. Threats have targeted not only the president but family members and events in his orbit, including a foiled terror plot aimed at a UFC event associated with Trump.
The appeals court's 2-1 split tells its own story. Two judges decided that procedural questions about congressional approval outweighed the executive branch's stated security rationale. One judge disagreed. Now the Supreme Court will decide whether a construction permit dispute should take precedence over what the government itself calls an active assassination campaign by a hostile foreign power.
The administration's position is straightforward: the president of the United States was secretly loaded into a catering truck on a foreign tarmac because the Secret Service believed a missile might hit his plane. The government says the ballroom project exists to reduce exactly that kind of exposure, by keeping the president inside a hardened perimeter instead of moving him through open streets to off-site venues.
Whether the Supreme Court agrees that security concerns override the separation-of-powers objection remains to be seen. But the DOJ's choice of language, "assassination attempt," not "threat," not "incident", signals how seriously the administration wants the justices to take the danger.
When a foreign adversary is actively trying to kill the president, arguing over building permits starts to look like a dangerous luxury.