Donald Trump has been trying to save his White House ballroom project by saying it’s not just a ballroom anymore — it’s a key national security project with bomb shelters, drone defenses, and a “military complex.”
But there’s a big problem: the White House already has a huge nuclear-hardened bunker buried over 60 feet underground.
Three former officials told The Washington Post that this highly secure facility was secretly built during the Obama administration.
It can protect the president and many top officials for weeks during a major attack.
Located deep under the DC area and reachable by a private elevator, it was designed to survive a nuclear blast and let the president keep running the country during a disaster.
In other words, it already does what Trump is now claiming the ballroom needs to do.
Trump has been shouting “national security!” as courts try to stop the project.
He told the press that “the ballroom is so much a military component with the drones and the bomb shelters.” His administration argued to the Supreme Court that the underground facility and ballroom are now “inextricably intertwined.”
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll even went further, calling the new underground complex a “nondiscretionary prerequisite” needed for Trump to stay in charge during an attack or global crisis.
But former officials said the existing bunker already includes many of the safety features the administration is using to justify the new complex, like protection from weapons of mass destruction.
And yes, the White House bunker should sound familiar.
The older EOC wasn’t just a theoretical hideaway.
Vice President Dick Cheney and other top officials worked from there during the Sept.11 attacks, with Cheney directing the government’s response from inside the bunker.
Trump was famously rushed into the same emergency facility during the George Floyd protests in 2020, earning him the nickname “Bunker Boy.” He later claimed he went down there just for an “inspection.”
Now the administration has created another big problem for itself.
Former officials warned that Trump’s sudden demolition of the East Wing may have damaged or destroyed the older bunker and revealed what was underneath, possibly creating new security risks.
A federal judge already rebuked the administration’s argument that construction must continue because stopping now would be dangerous.
“Defendants themselves forged ahead and created this ‘coordinated and managed safety hazard’ on White House grounds,” Judge Richard Leon wrote.
There may be real reasons to upgrade White House security.
But Trump wanted a ballroom, its cost rose to $600 million, courts started getting in his way, and suddenly the ballroom became an urgent national security necessity.
Unfortunately for Bunker Boy, there’s already a nuclear-proof bunker more than 60 feet beneath the White House built to keep the president alive and the government running.
About the Author
