President Donald Trump has unveiled new details about his construction at the White House ballroom, revealing for the first time that the massive structure will sit on top of a hidden underground security and military complex. The ballroom, a roughly 90,000-square-foot expansion, is being built on the site of the former East Wing, which was demolished in late 2025 to make way for the project.

According to Trump, the project, estimated at around $400 million, is being fully funded by private donors, with no direct taxpayer cost.

Trump confirmed that the U.S. military is building a “massive complex” underground, designed with modern security threats in mind. The facility is expected to include infrastructure such as bulletproof glass, reinforced structures, and drone-resistant protection, to be able to deflect modern weapons and warfare. Reports indicate the underground complex is connected to or built over the historic Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), a Cold War-era bunker designed to protect U.S. leadership during catastrophic events.

Trump described the ballroom itself as both functional and protective, effectively acting as a cover structure for the security installation below, while also serving as a venue for major events such as state dinners and even inaugurations.

Legal challenges are ongoing in regard to this construction, and Trump alluded to this in his statement, with courts weighing whether the administration bypassed required approvals.

Still, Trump insists the project is justified on both practical and security grounds since modern threats require updated infrastructure beneath the White House.

Trump has defended the project aggressively, calling the ballroom “ahead of schedule and under budget” and constantly positioning it as both a symbol of American prestige and now as a necessary upgrade to presidential security.

If completed, the project would represent one of the most dramatic physical transformations of the White House in decades—combining luxury, symbolism, and high-level military protection into a single structure.