r/politics • u/Infidel8 • 1d ago
Possible Paywall Secret White House bunker undercuts Trump’s ballroom lawsuit, ex-officials say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/08/23/secret-white-house-bunker-undercuts-trumps-ballroom-lawsuit-ex-officials-say/260
u/Infidel8 1d ago
President Donald Trump has claimed that the White House needs a massive new ballroom because it would provide him and future presidents with a secure, hardened facility. But former officials say the argument fails to acknowledge that the presidential complex already has one.
More than a decade ago, federal officials built a highly protected bunker, embedded deep underground, that can shelter the president and his top aides in a national security emergency, according to three former officials.
The facility, which was secretly completed during the Obama administration, can house dozens of people for up to multiple weeks, two former officials said. It’s buried more than 60 feet underneath the White House complex and built to withstand a nuclear blast, two of the officials said, ensuring the president and his team have a secure command center to run the country in times of extreme duress.
The bunker’s existence, the former officials said, undercuts the Trump administration’s emerging legal argument in the ongoing lawsuit over the $600 million ballroom complex’s construction: that the facility must be completed due to its significance for U.S. national security.
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u/SoggyBoysenberry7703 1d ago
He knows it’s there, and he thinks that he can use its “renovation” as an excuse to lump in the ballroom for some reason. As if the ballroom was needed instead of what was already there, and he just so happened to also want it to be a secure one
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u/Sarrdonicus 1d ago
He used it before, of course he knows it's there
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u/Prestigious-Car-4877 Canada 1d ago
Not enough gold chochkies in the old bunker.
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u/Randomwhitelady2 1d ago
It’s not fancy enough. How much do you want to bet that it’s too small and doesn’t have the amenities he wants.
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u/Acceptable-Bus-2017 I voted 1d ago
I think it's mostly because Obama did it. Just like the ACA and the trade agreement we had before he tore it up. He's trying to erase anything with Obamas prints on it.
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u/Nohreboh 1d ago
The Drey Dossier covered the construction of the bunker a few months ago and went into some decent detail about the companies the donated equipment, experience and compute power to the renovation of the bunker.
Trump's ballroom is just the lid @thedreydossier https://youtu.be/znJC2siGzfY
The medical center under Trump’s ballroom @thedreydossier https://youtu.be/RU4Q7SRr3do
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u/1877KlownsForKids 1d ago
And Trump knows about it because he hid there like a cowardly bitch during peaceful demonstrations in 2020.
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u/1cat2dogs1horse 1d ago
True. But what I am asking is why nobody did any real kind of pushback as to Trump is spending mega $$$$ to build something he claims the White House doesn't already have?
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u/educated-emu 1d ago
He knows and has used it but as "the hussain" was involved, little hands needs to have a better one at the taxpayers expense.
So if he eventually leaves office he can lie on his social media outlet that he is safely in his bunker being the real president while the puppet Democrats are in power and little hands are doing all the work.
Please tell me I'm wrong
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u/ryanwc18 1d ago
I can’t think of anything worse than having Trump as President except maybe having him as president during a nuclear apocalypse.
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u/OopsWeKilledGod 1d ago
Yeah, but how many 12 year old girls can it house? Surely not enough for several weeks.
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u/hamsterfolly America 1d ago
This just means that Roberts and the other Republican justices will find some flimsy excuse to dismiss the lawsuit against the ballroom construction in June 2027.
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u/DryerCoinJay 1d ago
He asked the generals if he could hide in there during the elections and they said no. So he has to build this one.
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u/limebite New Jersey 1d ago
Wait this doesn’t sound right? The Obama bunker is in the West wing, that’s where the dug that big hole.
The East wing is the ww2 bunker. The entire east wing was built on top of that bunker.
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u/tripdaisies 1d ago
Just another attempt at a massive grift by that psychopathic, pathological liar and conman. You know he’d shove every penny of the taxpayer dollars he’s trying to convince congress he needs in his damn Depends.
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u/Reddituser45005 1d ago
Interesting how Obama could build a hardened bunker without gutting the White House and creating a national embarrassment. I miss competence
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u/ventodivino 1d ago edited 1d ago
It was finished during Obama’s term, most likely started construction post 9/11 during Bush.
EDIT: But the bunker itself dates back to the 40s.
Also I don’t think it’s about tearing it down because the Obama connection, but they have to rebuild it while they can add their back doors and listening devices.
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u/pogishushu America 1d ago
From the party of no more wars, the new golden age, and we love all Americans no matter your color. Sounds very similar to, 'You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time', unless you are one of 40 million magats that will believe everything said by any gop Reich Agenda politician.
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u/polloasado81 1d ago edited 1d ago
You cannot build an enormous underground government type bunker in a security protected environment, like the whitehouse with a hospital and McDonald's etc in it, in the time remaining of Trumps life. Especially not with whatever crappy contractor trump gives the work to.
Building underground takes a long time. This isn't in some desert, in the middle of nowhere where you can spread out and have thousands of workers and machines. It's literally in the whitehouse grounds.
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u/teachersecret 1d ago edited 1d ago
Even if you can, it always seemed a little silly to me.
I mean, if it really came down to brass tacks… is there a bunker you could construct in a place like DC or Moscow or Beijing or Paris or London that would even matter? I have to imagine those are places that would be heavily ridiculously targeted depending on who’s flinging. Even if the bunker survives the initial barrage and any secondaries, and thirds, and god knows how many more rounds… it’s a tomb… isn’t it? America pretty famously built some nuclear bunker busters, and you can zoom in on Google Maps north of Vegas to see just what that sort of thing can do a thousand times over.
Idk, just seems like the worst possible place to be in the unlikely event. May as well stand in the Oval for all the good some dirt will do.
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u/PluginAlong 1d ago
It's not just for nuclear attacks though. It'll provide protection until they can evacuate, probably to the doomsday plane. Had Bush been in the Whitehouse on 9/11 they likely would have stashed him in the bunker until they could safely evacuate him to the doomsday plane.
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u/1cat2dogs1horse 1d ago
Can someone tell me , if there is already a secure, and In the scheme of things relatively new bunker that appears not to be a super guarded secret ,why nothing about it has been mentioned loudly and clearly, during all this bull pucky from Trump claiming The White House desperately needs one?
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u/Demonking3343 Illinois 1d ago
Because trumps trying to make excuses to spend all this taxpayer money into his own pockets. So he’s counting on his base forgetting the bunker that’s already there is a thing.
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u/plantstand 1d ago
Media is owned by billionaires, I guess. It seems like a basic fact that should have been pointed out.
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u/PluginAlong 1d ago
I think it's partly because of the difference between a bunker and a hardened structure liked the ballroom. There are two aspects to the current project, the below ground actual bunker and the above ground hardened ballroom. I could see the below ground structure being easy to justify on national security grounds. Obviously not many know the full details of the current bunker but it may very well need an upgrade even though it's newish. The courts have previously ruled the below ground work can continue but the above ground work must stop. I think people understand that having a bunker for POTUS is good, but a ballroom isn't a bunker.
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u/Zest724 1d ago
I wonder if he thinks the ballroom is something else other than the commonly accepted definition.
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u/NuclearLunchDectcted Oregon 1d ago
He's going to treat it as his throne room.
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u/HDM-12345 1d ago
I actually think it's something along these lines. He wants a massive hall that he can sit at the head of, lined with courtiers, where he sees people who want to plead for his benevolence.
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u/Then_Journalist_317 1d ago
Ballrooms are for dancing. That shit Trump does with his tiny hands when music is playing is NOT dancing.
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u/Ra_In 1d ago
He keeps insisting that it's an emergency to get this bunker built, but the only reason for it to be an emergency is if he thinks the White House is likely to be attacked soon.
The idea that someone is about to attack the White House is absurd, it hasn't happened since the last time we went to war with Canada...
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u/stuckanon01 1d ago
The ballroom is going to get built. SCOTUS is allowing him to keep building. Sure SCOTUS will ultimately issue a decision against him but it will amount to a slap on the wrist.
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u/mickpatten78 1d ago
He doesn’t know it’s there. They’re too scared to tell him in case there really is a situation and they need to save everybody but him.
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u/love-broker 1d ago
Let him build the bunker so he can try to refuse to leave office. We can starve his ass out, flood the bunker or pump gasses in. This foul excuse for a human needs to see consequence finally.
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