Trump has been pushing for a ballroom/military bunker at the White House, but now we learn that such a bunker already exists; did the administration know or is it clueless?

White House construction in progress (AP)

Of all the damage Donald Trump has inflicted on the United States and its reputation, nothing he's done seems to have enraged Americans like his demolition of the White House's East Wing to make room for a ballroom, which morphed into a "military installation" and then a "military bunker." Now we learn there never was any need for a bunker-style facility at the White House; it already had one  -- and in a show of the incompetence that has become its trademark, the administration apparently did not know about the bunker's existence. 

In a jointly published article at The UK Independent and Yahoo! News -- with original reporting from The Washington Post -- we learn just how clueless Trump and his minions can appear to be. Under the headline "White House secret bunker undermines Trump's security case for Trump's $600m ballroom: report," Joe Sommerlad writes:

President Donald Trump's insistence that his $600 million White House ballroom is justified because of the security upgrades it will bring is undermined by the fact that the complex already has a secret bunker, according to former officials.

The Washington Post cites three ex-officials who point to the existence of the nuclear-proof underground base as grounds for rejecting Trump's case for proceeding with his pet project.

What prompted a White House bunker to be built, what features does it include, and how long has it been there? Sommerlad has the details:

The bunker was commissioned in response to the 9/11 attacks and completed during Barack Obama's tenure to keep the commander-in-chief safe.

It is reportedly situated 60 feet below street level, is accessible by private elevator, stores a month's supply of food, has its own air supply system and is intended to shield its inhabitants from a range of threats, including the blast of a weapon of mass destruction.

It was itself constructed as a successor to the existing Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) in the basement of the East Wing, which was built to protect Franklin D Roosevelt in the Second World War and served to safeguard first lady Laura Bush and vice president Dick Cheney when al-Qaeda struck 25 years ago.

As it turns out, the arguments the Trump administration is making for its ballroom/military bunker already have been made, Sommerlad reports:

The unnamed former officials told The Post the arguments put forward for the bunker during the War on Terror are similar to those being made by the Trump administration now to explain the need for the new ballroom, raising questions about whether the latter is really essential.

"The East Wing Modernization Project is inextricably tied to the security of the president, the White House grounds and the certain security infrastructure assets," White House spokesman Davis Ingle countered in a statement to The Independent. 

"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." 

As we reported yesterday, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is allowing Trump to proceed with construction, both above and below ground, even though the president clearly violated the law when he demolished the East Wing to make room for his ballroom without seeking authorization from Congress. We showed that Trump's efforts to build his ballroom/military bunker have been marked by deceitful public statements and lawless machinations largely outside of public view. We suspect the public can expect to see such a campaign continue now that Americans know a White House bunker already exists. Sommerlad writes:

The fate of the construction project currently sits with the U.S. Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts issued an order Friday allowing work to continue while his bench considers an emergency appeal arguing that it must be halted unless congressional approval is granted.

Both a U.S. district judge and a federal appeals panel have found that the support of a majority of lawmakers in the House of Representatives and Senate is required before the undertaking can proceed.  

Technically, Roberts lifted a stay that had halted construction in order to allow the full court to consider an emergency appeal. But Roberts put no timeline on when a full decision might be reached, so for now, Trump has carte blanche to do whatever he wants with the White House. That probably does not, and should not, give Americans much comfort about what is happening to an iconic governmental structure, a symbol of U.S. democracy that belongs to them due to their status as taxpayers. Meanwhile, we see signs that the administration's PR blitz already is in full swing. Whether that will be built mostly on facts or falsehoods remains to be seen. The history of the Trump administration does not give us much reason to expect facts going forward. Sommerlad writes:

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said in an August filing that the proposed 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."

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has similarly claimed: "Securing this reinforced subterranean node guarantees uninterrupted command and control in place."

Driscoll called it "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." (Driscoll seems to assume that it would be in America's best interests for Trump to be in control during a global crisis. Recent history tells us that Trump is more likely to start a global crisis than to end one. As for Stephen Miller, does anyone -- even MAGA cultists -- believe a word he says?)

Trump's unauthorized construction continues apace, and John Roberts seems perfectly fine with that. But it's a scary proposition when it remains unclear if the administration is aware a bunker already is in place. Could this be a construction accident -- perhaps a devastating one -- waiting to happen? Sommerlad writes:

Lawyers for the White House told the Supreme Court earlier this month the complex is 65 percent complete and that a 250-strong construction crew was working on it 20 hours per day, seven days a week to get it done.

Trump himself has meanwhile claimed that opposition to the project is "disloyal" and attacked the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the organization tasked by Congress with preserving D.C. institutions and landmarks, for challenging the ballroom in court, suggesting their lawsuit risked compromising national security. (Memo to the president: Maybe there would be no lawsuit, and no national-security concern, if you had followed the law and received authorization from Congress before beginning construction.)

"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 complained in the Oval Office last week.

"But now they are revealed, so the world knows about it." 

 Notice that our president -- supposedly the "Leader of the Free World" -- is blaming someone else for a problem he caused. How very Trumpian.

Who knows what will happen next in the ballroom/bunker saga? But here is one major question hanging out there: Did the Trump administration know a White House bunker already existed when it began unauthorized construction? I'm going to do some research on that question, and I will keep you posted on my progress. We hope you will stay tuned.