Secret White House Bunker Undercuts Trump's Ballroom Case
Secret White House Bunker Undercuts Trump's Ballroom Case
The News
A nuclear-hardened bunker already exists beneath the White House complex, three former officials told the Washington Post — undercutting the Trump administration's argument that the $600 million ballroom project must be built for national security reasons.
The Post reported Sunday that the facility was commissioned in response to the 9/11 attacks and secretly completed during the Obama administration. Two of the former officials said it is buried more than 60 feet underground, built to withstand a nuclear blast, and can house dozens of people for up to multiple weeks.
The Independent, citing the Post's report, said the bunker is reachable by private elevator, has its own air supply and stores a month's supply of food.
Timeline
The facility was built as a successor to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center in the basement of the East Wing — the shelter constructed for Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Second World War that sheltered first lady Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney during the al-Qaeda attacks 25 years ago.
In an August court filing, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller argued the new underground complex "serves continuity-of-government interests by ensuring that the president and senior national security staff are able to operate from a protected facility during any attack on the nation's capital."
Earlier this month, lawyers for the White House told the Supreme Court the complex is 65 percent complete, with a 250-strong construction crew working 20 hours a day, seven days a week.
On Friday, Chief Justice John Roberts issued an order allowing construction to continue while the court considers an emergency appeal arguing the work must stop without congressional approval.
On Sunday, the Post published the account of the three former officials. The paper said it is withholding some details of the bunker so as not to compromise White House security protocols. The officials spoke anonymously.
Reactions
White House spokesman Davis Ingle defended the project in a statement to the Post: "The East Wing Modernization Project is inextricably tied to the security of the president, the White House grounds and the certain security infrastructure assets."
Ingle added that "recent events such as the foiled attack on the historic UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House proves exactly why the East Wing Modernization Project is severely needed for large scale events, which include drone proof structures and drone ports among other critical security enhancements."
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has called the underground node "a nondiscretionary prerequisite to ensure the president can maintain continuity of government, uninterrupted operations, and effectively exercise National Command Authority during an attack or global crisis."
Trump has said opposition to the ballroom is "disloyal" and has attacked the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is challenging the project in court. "I said the problem with the suit — I told them this — is that we have many military things in this ballroom, and ideally, they shouldn't be revealed," he said in the Oval Office last week. "But now they are revealed, so the world knows about it."
On the right, the story is the leak, not the bunker. Townhall's Matt Vespa called the disclosure "borderline treason," wrote that the Post had compromised presidential security, and said "this is a story where subpoenas should be issued." He also defended the ballroom on its own terms, arguing outside venues like the Washington Hilton — where Ronald Reagan was shot — are hard for the Secret Service to protect, and that the existing White House is too small to host state dinners without tents and portable toilets on the lawn.
Power Line called the Democrats' focus on the ballroom and the underground secure area "perhaps the most crazed" manifestation of Trump Derangement Syndrome, describing the ballroom as "an appropriate and arguably necessary enhancement."
What's Next
The project's fate rests with the Supreme Court, which is weighing the emergency appeal. Work continues in the meantime under Roberts' order.
A U.S. district judge and a federal appeals panel have both found that majority support in the House and Senate is required before the project can proceed — but both carved out an exception for the planned subterranean military complex.
More
The former officials told the Post that the arguments made for the bunker during the War on Terror closely resemble the ones the administration is making now for the ballroom, which is why they say the new project's security rationale does not hold up. The White House has not disputed that the earlier facility exists.
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