Trump reveals 'massive military complex' under new $400m White House ballroom
Donald Trump has revealed the US military has built a “massive complex” underneath his new $400m White House ballroom.
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Trump sparked outrage last year when he ordered one of the White House’s wings to be bulldozed and replaced with a luxury ballroom to host dignitaries from across the globe.
Trump, as well as a series of tech and defence firms, have paid for the project - with experts believing it has cost between $200m and $400m.
Until now, many had believed the ballroom would double as something else, but this is the first time the President has confirmed the military is involved.
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“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,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One last week.
“It’s part of it, the ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what’s being built under the military [complex] including [protection] from drones and including from any other thing.
“The glass on the windows is extremely thick – it’s high-grade bulletproof glass.”
Brandishing a render of the ballroom, Trump added: “We just got these in from the architects. A lot of people are talking about how beautiful the ballroom is.
“For 150 years, they’ve wanted to build a ballroom at the White House, and other presidents have wanted it [for] when we have dignitaries coming, like President Xi of China, or anybody else, and we have very small rooms that are not big enough to handle the kind of capacity that you need.
“This [the ballroom] is the same height as the White House – it’s an incredible fitting. I think it’ll be the finest ballroom of its kind anywhere in the world.
“A lot of people are giving it really good reviews, some are giving it reviews without even seeing the building, because these pictures just came out today.”
The President added he’d been “so busy fighting wars” he had to reveal the plans while aboard Air Force One.
He said: “I don’t have time to do this. I’m fighting wars and other things. But this is important because this is going to be with us for a long time.”
It comes after Trump said the ballroom was needed for when international leaders like King Charles visited Washington DC.
Speaking to a group of farmers as he overlooked the building site, the president and billionaire developer declared: “I love construction.”
He added: “That’s a big dig. We’re building a ballroom.“Every president has said can we have a ballroom please, a room where you could have a lot of people?
“So when the president of China, France, when somebody comes over from the UK, including the King, we have the King coming over very shortly, King Charles, so we can have, like, a large room, because the White House is incredible, but it never had a ballroom.
“That’ll be the finest ballroom anywhere in the world when it’s completed.
“I love construction. I love building beautiful things.”
The now-demolished East Wing was originally built in 1902 during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency and subsequently expanded in 1942 under Franklin Roosevelt.
The privately funded ballroom development, which is designed to hold 1,000 guests, is due to be completed before the end of Trump’s presidency in 2029.