Trump appears likely to overhaul presidential bunker during White House renovation

President Donald Trump’s sweeping renovation of the White House, a hotspot of outrage for his detractors, may potentially include one of the most secure facilities of the U.S. government.

Trump is temporarily demolishing the White House’s East Wing — which his administration eventually plans to rebuild and modernize — to construct The White House State Ballroom. The East Wing was significantly expanded during World War II, mainly to conceal the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), an underground bunker.

Trump has said the U.S. military is “deeply involved” in the ongoing work, though the White House has not specified what role defense personnel are playing.

A 2020 Military Times account described the bunker under the East Wing as a Cold War-era structure built to “withstand a direct nuclear hit,” accessible only by elevator behind multiple vault doors with biometric access controls. The White House at the time said the exact specifications of the facility were “classified.”

The Treasury Department recently instructed its employees not to take or share photographs of the East Wing demolition, citing potential exposure of “sensitive items, including security features or confidential structural details,” according to the Wall Street Journal. The directive followed viral social media posts showing heavy construction equipment tearing into the building.

The East Wing was first built in 1902 under President Theodore Roosevelt and later reconstructed in 1942 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, mainly to hide the newly built complex beneath it. The underground facility was designed to serve as a secure command post for the president and senior staff in the event of a national emergency or attack on the nation’s capital.

The PEOC has been upgraded periodically over the decades, most notably after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when it served as a secure command site for Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior officials.

The latest construction project, however, is the first time in modern history that the East Wing — and the structures above the PEOC — have been completely demolished.

The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

“For more than 150 years, every President has dreamt about having a Ballroom at the White House to accommodate people for grand parties, State Visits, etc.,” Trump wrote on Monday regarding his ballroom construction. “I am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project underway — with zero cost to the American Taxpayer!”

Democrats have denounced the project, and some have suggested it is an example of extravagance against the backdrop of a government shutdown.

“So folks, the government is shutdown, we’re fighting to fix people’s health care, and the President of the United States is having a construction crew just rip off the east side of the White House so he can build his giant golden ballroom,” Democratic Arizona Senator Mark Kelly said on X Thursday. “Really?”

Kelly, like almost all Senate Democrats, voted a dozen times against funding measures to reopen the government and end the ongoing shutdown, now in its 24th day.

“In the coming days, millions of Americans will be notified that their health insurance will cost thousands of dollars more next year,” wrote former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on X Friday. “Meanwhile, President Trump is busy tearing down the East Wing of the White House to build a gilded ballroom for exclusive dinner parties. It doesn’t have to be like this.”

Republicans, however, argue that the project is the prerogative of the President, pointing out that the work is not being funded by taxpayer dollars.

“It’s an old garage, you know, we talked to President Trump the other day at lunch and it’s not something that’s gonna take away from the White House, it’s not being paid for by taxpayers, and so it’s gonna make it better,” Republican Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville told reporters on Thursday. “Obama put $364 million into a project in the White House. Almost every president has done that, so we got a lot more problems to worry about than that.”

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