On Friday, it was revealed that President Donald Trump offered a less-than-reassuring response when asked about a conspiracy theory involving his much-demanded White House ballroom. Some have suggested that once his term is up, he plans on locking himself away in the bunker being constructed beneath it. According to a reporter with the New York Intelligencer who toured the construction site with the president, Trump said little to alleviate such concerns.
“I asked Trump if he was building himself a bunker so he could hole up in the White House after the 2028 election,” wrote the Intelligencer’s D.C. correspondent Ben Terris. Trump’s reply was dodgy at best.
“I haven’t heard that one,” he said. “But I tell you what, it would be awfully tough to get you out. Nobody would be able to get you out.”
Speculation that Trump plans on “barricading” himself in the bunker has been raised for months. He announced the intention to build the ballroom last summer, began construction that fall, and controversy has plagued the project ever since. Initially, he said the ballroom was necessary for hosting state functions, arguing that it was something presidents had long desired. That rationale shifted, however, in an apparent effort to placate the public and the courts. Increasingly, Trump has referred to it in a military capacity, with the bunker playing a central role in that proposed use.
As Terris explains, “In recent months, in their successful effort to beat back attempts to slow down construction, Trump and his legal team have leaned into another justification for the project. It is, they say, a matter of national security. When the military first heard Trump talk about the ballroom, he says, top generals arranged a meeting. ‘They said, “Sir, we’d like to build things, it would be a dream, but there’s never been anything like this proposed,”’ Trump says. ‘“If we could build underground, we could go down five stories.”’ Now, whenever Trump talks about the ballroom, he always brings up the drone port that will be housed on the roof, the bulletproof windows and walls, and the underground military wing, which will replace the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, the bunker built beneath the East Wing during World War II. The new bunker will keep the president safe from nuclear blasts and contain a fully operational hospital.”
Trump’s reluctance to give up power and frequent taunts that he wants to run for a third term in 2028 have raised concerns that he intends to use the fortified bunker for nefarious purposes. As one commenter replied to the article, “He is telling you, he is never leaving. We are going to have to dig him out like a tick.”
