President Trump said late Sunday that his new White House ballroom will act as a “shed” for a “massive military complex” being built underneath.
“Now, 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. “But the military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that’s under construction, and we’re doing very well.” (RELATED: ROOKE: The Real Reason Trump Renovating White House Buried Underground)
“We have all bulletproof glass, we have drone-proof roofs, ceilings,” the president added. “Unfortunately, we’re living in an age when that’s a good thing.”
US President Donald Trump looks through a window to observe construction work on his new ballroom prior to a meeting with US oil company executives in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2026. President Trump is aiming to convince oil executives to support his plans in Venezuela, a country whose energy resources he says he expects to control for years to come. US forces seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a sweeping military operation on January 3, with Trump making no secret that control of Venezuela’s oil was at the heart of his actions. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images)
Before confirming the plans Sunday night, Trump said at a cabinet meeting Thursday that the military “wanted” the ballroom renovations “more than anybody.”
“It was supposed to be secret,” Trump said. “But it became unsecret because of people that are really unpatriotic saying things.”
In October 2025, The Daily Caller’s Mary Rooke noted that the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, the president’s bunker, is located underneath the East Wing, where the ballroom will be built. She also pointed to the general air of secrecy surrounding the project, and how the U.S. Treasury Department instructed its employees not to share or snap pictures of the demolition because they could “potentially reveal sensitive items, including security features or confidential structural details.”
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 23: An excavator works to clear rubble after the East Wing of the White House was demolished on October 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. The demolition is part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to build a ballroom reportedly costing at least $250 million on the eastern side of the White House. (Photo by Eric Lee/Getty Images)
The original bunker was built by President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. At the request of Roosevelt, architect Lorenzo Winslow renovated the East Wing annex in order to conceal the bunker and make extra office space for White House wartime meetings.
Trump’s new $300-$400 million ballroom project was privately funded by some of America’s biggest corporations and richest individuals. Notably, several major defense contractors made donations, including Lockheed Martin, Booze Allen Hamilton, and Palantir.
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