White House ballroom to act as "shed" over planned military bunker says Trump

Ahead of Thursday's approval hearing for the White House ballroom expansion, US president Donald Trump has presented updated renderings of the project, suggesting it will act in part to cover a military bunker underneath.

Trump presented the new renders during a Sunday night press briefing on Air Force One, and said the military complex underneath the White House ballroom is under construction and "ahead of schedule and under budget".

"The military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that's under construction, and we're doing very well, so we're ahead of schedule," said Trump.

"The ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what's being built under [by] the military, including from drones and including from any other thing."

Trump said the ballroom, which takes up the majority of a proposed 90,000-square-foot (8,360 square metre) new East Wing building, will be bullet-proof and "drone-proof".

"We have drone-proof roofs, ceilings – everything [is] drone-proof and bulletproof," he continued.  "Unfortunately, we're living in an age where that's a good thing."

"The glass is extremely thick. It's high-grade bulletproof glass. All of the windows are bulletproof," he continued. "I think the Times wrote that, some of the windows are fake – there are no fake windows."

As part of the presentation of the new renderings, which show closer crops of the design by Shalom Baranes Architects, Trump said a grand staircase has been removed from the building's south side.

Previously, the stairs would have jutted out into the yard, but now the edge of the building will contain a closed portico lined by a row of Corinthian columns.

To provide a new access channel in replacement of the scraped staircase, an enlarged porch was added to the west side of the building and contains "a fire stair, basically leading down to the grounds", according to Trump.

Trump said the Corinthian columns will be "hand-carved" and "beautiful". The ornate style has also been proposed to replace the Ionic columns on the central White House residence.

"They're going to be hand-carved, and they're beautiful, top of the line," said Trump. "They'll be Corinthian, which is considered the best, most beautiful by far."

Overall, he said the design is "a twin" to the White House, and meant to pay homage, with the two buildings at "exactly the same height".

"It fits in with the White House. It's almost a twin to the White House. We just wanted to pay tribute to the White House," said Trump.

"I think it'll be the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world. It pays total homage to the White House, which is I think, very important."

Trump also reemphasised that "there's not one dime of government money going into the ballroom" and that it is funded by himself and donors.

Rumours of a military bunker underneath the East Wing ballroom have been circulating since early 2026.

It is unclear who has been commissioned for the project, but a subterranean visitor centre designed by AECOM was recently proposed by the president, which will be located nearby.

In previous National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) meetings, the body to give approval to the project, it was stated that Shalom Baranes Architects would submit its own security designs that are both "temporary and permanent" throughout the White House complex.

The ballroom expansion, officially the East Wing Modernisation project, has drawn ire from the public and architecture critics alike.

The New York Times built a 3D model of the proposed design, saying that it "upends the symmetry that was once fundamental" to the White House, while The Times called out the building's fake windows and "stairs to nowhere", which Trump responded to in his Sunday night briefing.

President Trump said, "They've wanted to build a ballroom at the White House for 150 years. And other Presidents have wanted it."

The White House ballroom project will go to a vote on 2 April at an NCPC meeting to move towards final approvals.

Dezeen published an explainer of the ongoing project earlier this year.

The imagery is via The White House. 

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