Trump To Overhaul Presidential Bunker During White House Renovation

President Donald Trump’s radical renovation of the White House, a subject of outrage for his critics, is expected to include one of the most secure facilities in the U.S. government.

Trump is temporarily demolishing the East Wing of the White House — which his administration plans to rebuild and modernize — to build the White House State Ballroom. The East Wing was significantly expanded during World War II, primarily to conceal the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), an underground bunker.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing Thursday that security improvements would be made to the bunker. Anonymous sources confirmed to Jennifer Jacobs, CBS News’ senior White House reporter, that the PEOC will be modernized during the renovation and that the White House Military Office will handle that undertaking, Jacobs wrote Wednesday

A White House official told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the entire East Wing is being modernized to support Trump’s planned ballroom. The process will also involve enhanced security features, the official told DCNF.

Trump said the US military is “deeply involved” in the ongoing work, although the White House has not specified what role defense personnel play.

A 2020 Military times The account describes the bunker beneath the East Wing as a Cold War-era structure built to “withstand a direct nuclear hit,” accessible only by elevator behind several vault doors with biometric access controls. The White House said at the time that the exact specifications of the facility were “classified.”

U.S. President Donald Trump shows a rendering of the East Wing of the White House being demolished to build a ballroom as he meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, October 22, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON/AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

The Treasury Department recently asked its employees not to take or share photos of the East Wing demolition, citing the potential exposure of “sensitive items, including security features or confidential structural details,” according to the Treasury Department. The Wall Street Journal. The directive followed viral social media posts showing heavy construction equipment entering the building.

The East Wing was first built in 1902 under President Theodore Roosevelt and then rebuilt in 1942 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, primarily to hide the newly constructed complex beneath it. The underground facility was designed to serve as a secure command post for the president and senior officials in the event of a national emergency or attack on the nation’s capital.

The CPOU was updated periodically over the decades, including after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when it served as a secure command site for Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior officials.

The latest construction project, however, is the first time in modern history that the East Wing – and the structures above PEOC – have been completely demolished.

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 23: The facade of the East Wing of the White House is demolished by work crews October 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. The demolition is part of US President Donald Trump’s plan to build a $250 million ballroom east of the White House. ((Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“For over 150 years, every president has dreamed of having a ballroom at the White House to welcome people for major parties, state visits, etc.,” Trump wrote Monday about his ballroom construction. “I am honored to be the first president to finally launch this much-needed project – at no cost to the American taxpayer!” »

Democrats denounced the plan, and some suggested it was an example of extravagance amid a government shutdown.

“So folks, the government is shut down, we’re struggling to improve people’s health care, and the president of the United States is having a construction crew tear down the east side of the White House so he can build his giant golden ballroom,” Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly said. X THURSDAY. “Really?”

Kelly, like nearly every Senate Democrat, has voted a dozen times against funding measures aimed at reopening the government and ending the ongoing shutdown, now in its 24th day.

“In the coming days, millions of Americans will be informed that their health insurance will cost thousands of dollars more next year,” wrote former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. X Friday. “Meanwhile, President Trump is busy tearing down the East Wing of the White House to build a gilded ballroom for exclusive dinners. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Republicans, however, argue that the project is the president’s prerogative, emphasizing that the work is not funded by taxpayer dollars.

“It’s an old garage, you know, we talked to President Trump the other day at lunch and it’s not something that’s going to take money away from the White House, it’s not paid for by taxpayers, so it’s going to make things better,” Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville said Thursday. “Obama invested $364 million in a project at the White House. Almost every president has done it, so we have a lot bigger problems to worry about than that.”

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