President Donald Trump has justified the White House's $600 million ballroom project by arguing it will give him and future presidents a bunker-grade, fortified complex – but former officials say that argument ignores something that already exists.
More than a decade ago, federal officials quietly built a highly protected bunker deep underground at the White House, three former officials told the Washington Post. Completed during the Obama administration, it can shelter dozens of people for weeks, sits more than 60 feet below the complex, and is built to withstand a nuclear blast — giving the president a secure command center in a national emergency.
The bunker's existence undercuts the administration's legal argument, now before the Supreme Court, that the ballroom's underground "military complex" is a non-negotiable national security necessity.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle called the facility "inextricably tied to the security of the President" and pointed to a foiled attack on a UFC event as proof of the need for drone-proof structures.
Chief Justice John Roberts issued an order Friday allowing construction to continue while the Supreme Court weighs the case after lower courts had ordered a halt except for national-security-related work.
Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll have both told the court the underground facility is essential to "continuity of government."
Driscoll called it "a nondiscretionary prerequisite" for the president to exercise command authority during a crisis. Officials say the project is roughly 65 percent complete, with 250 workers on 20-hour shifts.
The former officials countered that the same rationale was used two decades ago to build the existing bunker — raising the question of why the White House now claims it lacks adequate protection.
They also warned that demolishing the East Wing may have damaged the older Presidential Emergency Operations Center, which sat just 20 feet below it, and that publicizing details of the new facility — including its "drone port" — could itself create security risks.
District Judge Richard Leon, who first ordered construction halted, has been unmoved by the security arguments, writing that officials "themselves forged ahead and created this 'coordinated and managed safety hazard'" on White House grounds.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued over the project, says it was never briefed on the existing bunker and was never asked to withhold its lawsuit — despite Trump's claim that the group acted "treasonist[ly]" by filing it.
