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U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that the military is constructing a “massive complex” under the White House ballroom.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said the information had leaked “recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed, but the military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that’s under construction, and we’re doing very well.”
“We’re ahead of schedule,” he added.
CNN reported in January on plans to build a secure underground facility at the White House, following the demolition of the East Wing and other existing but dated subterranean facilities, in preparation for the new $400 million ballroom. However, little is known about the project.
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In the past, the lower levels of the East Wing housed the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, which served multiple purposes, such as planning secret presidential trips and evacuation efforts, including that of Dick Cheney, who was sent into the space shortly before a plane crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
Trump and other senior officials also sheltered there in May 2020 during protests near the White House.
The president told the media during his Sunday remarks that “the ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what’s being built under.”
He also discussed the ballroom plans, holding up digital renderings and saying the new event space would be “almost a twin to the White House.”
US President Donald Trump holds a rendering of the East Wing modernization as he speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on March 29, 2026.
Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images
The president continued, saying he had not initially planned to discuss the ballroom.
“I’m so busy that I don’t have time to do this…I’m fighting wars and other things,” he said. “But this is very important, because this is going to be with us for a long time, and it’s going to be, I think it’ll be the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world.”
The ballroom plans have faced significant public backlash but have weathered a legal challenge from a preservation group seeking to halt construction of the 90,000-square-foot space. The National Capital Planning Commission will vote on the ballroom plans in April.
The commission received more than 32,000 written comments on the 90,000-square-foot ballroom addition before a public forum where people could raise concerns about the project.
Asked Monday about plans to construct a facility underneath the ballroom, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “I cannot tell you more about that actually, as a matter of fact, however the military is making some upgrades to their facilities here at the White House and I’m not privy to providing any more details on that at this time.”
Trump has previously said he and private donors are paying for the ballroom, and U.S. taxpayers will not foot the bill. The Trump administration released a list of donors, including tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Meta.
The ballroom is the most significant renovation that Trump is undertaking during his second term at the White House.
–with files from Global News’ Katie Scott
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
