Far-left streamer Hasan Piker mocks shooting near White House, pokes fun at Trump's ballroom
White House Shooting Sparks Online Backlash and Sparks Debate Over New Ballroom
A shooting outside a White House security checkpoint on Saturday night prompted a rapid response from Secret Service agents and drew unexpected commentary from far‑left Twitch streamer Hasan Piker.
According to Secret Service officials, the incident began shortly after 6 p.m. near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, where the 21‑year‑old Nasir Best, a Maryland resident, fired several shots toward a Secret Service booth. Agents returned fire, killing Best. A bystander was wounded, but no Secret Service officers sustained injuries. President Donald Trump, who was inside the White House working on Iran negotiations at the time, was briefed on the shooting.
The event was captured in a viral clip that circulated on social media. ABC News correspondent Selina Wang was seen ducking for cover on the White House North Lawn after hearing gunfire. Piker reposted the clip on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, with the caption “Uh oh,” and later added a mocking remark about the White House’s proposed ballroom: “Sources tell me the ballroom is safe! please god.”
Piker expanded his comments on TikTok, pairing the same video with a statement that the shootings would have been avoided “because there is no ballroom.” He added that “if they knew that there was a ballroom, you would basically stave off all potential shooters in the future because they would know how powerful the ballroom is.”
The new ballroom, a 22,000‑square‑foot space designed to hold about 1,000 guests, is part of a broader renovation of the East Wing. Trump has touted the venue’s security features on social media, saying the structure would be “the most safe and secure space of its kind ever built in Washington, D.C.” The project has been promoted as a response to heightened security concerns that followed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting a month earlier.
Piker has long been a critic of Trump’s policies, and he previously mocked the administration’s use of the Correspondents’ Dinner shooting to justify the ballroom on Instagram. His remarks have sparked controversy and prompted questions from both sides of the political spectrum.
In a separate development, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued administrative subpoenas to Piker and CodePink co‑founder Susan Medea Benjamin. The subpoenas are part of a federal investigation into whether U.S. entities violated sanctions by traveling to Cuba and providing goods or services to the island’s government. Neither the White House nor the Treasury has issued a public statement about the subpoenas.
The shooting, the subsequent online commentary, and the ballroom construction debate highlight the ongoing tensions surrounding White House security and the political fallout from recent incidents. The White House has yet to release a formal response to the latest inquiries.
