President Donald Trump confirmed Sunday evening that the U.S. military is constructing a large underground complex beneath the planned White House ballroom, a development the administration had sought to keep classified until a lawsuit forced it into the open.
Trump made the disclosure aboard Air Force One while showing reporters renderings of the project.
“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.
The president told reporters that “the ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what’s being built under.”
Trump said the ballroom is progressing “ahead of schedule and under budget” and reiterated that it is being financed entirely by himself and private donors.
“We have all bulletproof glass, we have drone-proof roofs, ceilings,” the president said while shuffling through renderings of the project. “Unfortunately, we’re living in an age when that’s a good thing.”
Last week, at a cabinet meeting, Trump said the military “wanted” the ballroom construction “more than anybody.”
“It was supposed to be secret, but it became unsecret because of people that are really unpatriotic saying things,” he said, according to NewsNation.
The suit that exposed the project was filed in December 2025 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Military Times outlined that It contends that Trump violated at least four laws by bypassing required review processes and asks a federal judge to suspend construction until the project undergoes independent reviews, passes environmental assessments, secures congressional authorization, and allows the public to offer input.
In February, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon rejected the group’s initial request to halt construction, writing that the plaintiff “didn’t bring the necessary cause of action to test the statutory authority the President claims.”
On March 31, however, Judge Leon granted the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s request for a preliminary injunction, temporarily ordering a halt to construction.
In October 2025, the Daily Caller’s Mary Rooke reported that the Presidential Emergency Operations Center — the president’s bunker — is located underneath the East Wing, where the ballroom is being 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 photograph the demolition because they could “potentially reveal sensitive items, including security features or confidential structural details.”
The original bunker beneath the East Wing was installed during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration.
The wing was first constructed in 1902 under President Theodore Roosevelt and then expanded under FDR in 1942.
The old bunker, known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, had been updated over the years to protect against various types of attacks, including nuclear war.
