Trump Wants Underground Facility To Screen White House Visitors

The Trump administration wants to build a massive security screening center underground near the White House.

Renderings for the 33,000-square-foot facility, planned beneath Sherman Park just south of the Treasury building, surfaced Friday in a preliminary agenda for the National Capital Planning Commission’s (NCPC) April 2 meeting, Politico reported.

Guests would reach the complex through a ramp at the intersection of 15th Street and E Street and step into a 5,000-square-foot recessed entry plaza built to keep foot traffic off neighboring sidewalks, according to The Hill. Seven processing lanes inside the center would replace the temporary trailers and tents that the Secret Service has operated since 2005, the outlet reported. (RELATED: ‘I Think We’re Done Here’: White House Ballroom Project Weathers Deluge Of Public Criticism Ahead Of Final Vote)

The project comes after President Donald Trump ordered the demolition of the East Wing last fall to clear space for a ballroom. Sherman Park had long served as the gathering point where tourists waited for security checks before walking to that entrance, Politico reported. Visitors now queue near Lafayette Park on the opposite side of Pennsylvania Avenue.

The White House wants to build an underground center to provide security screening for visitors https://t.co/njcMpnttfc

— POLITICO (@politico) March 14, 2026

Ground could break as soon as August, with the White House targeting a July 2028 opening, six months before Trump leaves office, according to Politico. The Executive Office of the President, the Secret Service and the National Park Service are collaborating on the effort.

A second structure of roughly 4,000 square feet along East Executive Avenue would function as an entry gate for credentialed staff and contractors and double as the exit route for departing guests, The Hill reported.

The NCPC is also set to debate and cast a final vote on the administration’s proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the old East Wing footprint at the same April 2 session, according to Politico. The statue of Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in the center of the park would remain in place.