Trump's ballroom fight sheds new light on an underground White House bunker

## Summary
Politics Trump's ballroom fight sheds new light on an underground White House bunker April 3, 2026 1:58 PM ET By Rachel Treisman President Trump holds a rendering of the East Wing modernization while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images President Trump's dreams of a White House ballroom have highlighted what was once a relative secret: the construction of a military bunker beneath the now-demolished East Wing. The administration started knocking down the East Wing in October to make way for Trump's long-desired White House ballroom , a project that will cost at least $300 million. Bush wrote that the Secret Service suggested the couple spend the night in the bunker: "They showed us the bed, a foldout that looked like it had been installed when FDR was president … we both said no." A decade later, when Barack Obama was president, the White House undertook a major, multi-year renovation project that involved digging a massive hole beneath the Oval Office, exposing what appeared to be a tunnel underneath.

## Article Content
Politics
Trump's ballroom fight sheds new light on an underground White House bunker
April 3, 2026
1:58 PM ET
By
Rachel Treisman
President Trump holds a rendering of the East Wing modernization while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump's dreams of a White House ballroom have highlighted what was once a relative secret: the construction of a military bunker beneath the now-demolished East Wing.
The administration
started knocking down
the East Wing in October to make way for Trump's
long-desired White House ballroom
, a project that will cost at least $300 million. The plan has drawn
disapproval
from
members of the public
and ire from architectural and conservation groups, one of which sued to block it back in December.
News
Judge rules White House ballroom construction must halt until Congress OK's it
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon sided with the National Trust for Historic Preservation this week,
when he ruled
that construction of the ballroom "must stop until Congress authorizes its completion."
Yet, as the White House appeals the decision, Leon is allowing construction to continue for "the safety and security of the White House" — a nod to the administration's argument that the renovation is about more than aesthetics.
That's backed up in court filings from the case, as well as Trump's own public comments.
A snapshot of the construction in February, after the East Wing was demolished to make room for a ballroom.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Jose Luis Magana/AP
"The military is building a big complex under the ballroom, which has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed," Trump
told reporters
on Air Force One over the weekend.
He said the proposed
90,000 square-foot
ballroom "essentially becomes a shed for what's being built under," adding that the "high-grade bulletproof glass" windows would protect the facility below "from drones and … from any other thing."
The existence of a World War II-era facility — called the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) — has been an open secret for decades, especially after the government
released photos in 2015
of White House officials sheltering inside on Sept. 11, 2001.
Politics
Trump's dream of building a ballroom at the White House is becoming a reality
But little is known about the current status of the bunker, which
CNN reported in January
had been dismantled in the renovations, or what kind of structure might come to replace it. When
asked on Monday
to share more about the underground complex, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stayed tight-lipped.
"The military is making some upgrades to their facilities here at the White House, and I'm not privy to provide any more details on that at this time," she said.
Trump was more forthcoming
with reporters
that same day, as he signed executive orders in the Oval Office, reiterating that the judge's decision allows him to "continue building as necessary … to cover the safety and security of the White House and its grounds."
Trump read through a handwritten note listing off the permitted upgrades.
"The roof is droneproof. We have secure air-handling systems," Trump said. "We have bio-defense all over. We have secure telecommunications and communications all over. We have bomb shelters that we're building. We have a hospital and very major medical facilities that we're building … So on that we're okay."
For decades, little was known about the FDR-era bunker
The White House built the East Wing with an underground bomb shelter for President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II, over concerns that the building could become the target of an aerial attack.
"This secret space featured thick concrete walls and steel-sheathed ceilings with a small presidential bedroom and bath inside," the White House Historical Association
wrote on social media
in 2024. "Nearby rooms provided ventilation masks, food storage, and communications equipment."
It has been upgraded in the decades since. On the day of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a number of White House officials under George W. Bush — who was in Florida at the time — took shelter there.
Former First Lady Laura Bush recounted the experience in her
2010 memoir
, in which she wrote about being "hustled downstairs through a pair of big steel doors that closed behind me with a loud hiss, forming an airtight seal."
President George W. Bush talks with Vice President Dick Cheney in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
Eric Draper/The White House/Associated Press
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toggle caption
Eric Draper/The White House/Associated Press
"I was now in one of the unfinished subterranean hallways underneath the White House, heading for the PEOC," she wrote. "We walked along old tile floors with pipes hanging from the ceiling and all kinds of mechanical equipment. The PEOC is de

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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
N/A

### Areas for Consideration
N/A

### Implications
- The administration started knocking down the East Wing in October to make way for Trump's long-desired White House ballroom , a project that will cost at least $300 million.
- Politics Trump's dream of building a ballroom at the White House is becoming a reality But little is known about the current status of the bunker, which CNN reported in January had been dismantled in the renovations, or what kind of structure might come to replace it.
- Roosevelt during World War II, over concerns that the building could become the target of an aerial attack. "This secret space featured thick concrete walls and steel-sheathed ceilings with a small presidential bedroom and bath inside," the White House Historical Association wrote on social media in 2024. "Nearby rooms provided ventilation masks, food storage, and communications equipment." It has been upgraded in the decades since.
- It noted that the White House had tried to keep that work hidden by putting up a fence around the excavation site and "ordering subcontractors not to talk to anyone and to tape over company info on trucks pulling into the White House gates." Politics What to know about Trump's future presidential library, which he says may be a hotel Many people didn't buy the official explanation for what some media outlets came to call "The White House Big Dig." A 2011 New York Times report cited unnamed administration officials speculating that the effort was actually "security-related." People did not take the GSA's story at face value, the article added, "despite the size of the hole, the controlled silence of the construction workers and the fact that funds were allocated after Sept. 11, 2001." A 2011 Washington Post piece put it more bluntly: "It's a bunker, right?" Questions about the bunker surfaced again during Trump's first term, after the New York Times and CNN reported that the Secret Service had rushed him inside and kept him there briefly during a night of Black Lives Matter protests outside the White House in May 2020.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers white, house, trump topics. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 1700.