HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — President Donald Trump said Sunday the military is building a complex beneath the grounds of the future White House ballroom.
“The military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that’s under construction and we’re doing very well,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “So we’re ahead of schedule – that’s part of it – and the ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what’s being built under the military, including from drones and including from any other thing.”
The National News Desk hasn’t been able to confirm the complex’s construction, and it’s unclear what it would include. The Presidential Emergency Operations Center, a White House bunker for immediate crises, was located under the now-demolished East Wing, but it’s unclear whether the facility is still intact.
Attorneys with the Department of Justice (DOJ) have argued that the ballroom must be completed to protect the White House. They said in a court filing in December, when a historic preservation organization sued to stop construction, that the district judge should consider security issues when deciding whether to issue an injunction.
“Because Plaintiff has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits, this Court need not consider the balance of harms and the public interest in issuance of an injunction. However, were the Court to do so, the equities favor Defendants in light of security concerns that warrant permitting the current below-grade construction to continue,” the DOJ wrote.
The plaintiffs, part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, have dismissed the administration’ arguments. The nonprofit said earlier this month that the DOJ was fishing for justification to build the ballroom.
“The Defendants continue to search for a legal theory – any theory – that permits them to erect a massive ballroom on the White House grounds without obtaining the necessary authorization from Congress,” the organization wrote in a filing. “After three months, well over a hundred pages of briefing, more than a dozen affidavits, and twelve attorneys scouring the U.S. Code, they are still searching, and for good reason: they need congressional authorization, and none exists.”
Judge Richard Leon denied the nonprofit’s request to halt construction last month, but the preservationists have since filed new arguments.
The administration razed the East Wing in October, bringing down offices that had been used in the decades after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s expansion of the section. First ladies, White House staff and visitors all occupied the space up until its destruction.
Do you have questions, concerns or tips? Send them to Ray at rjlewis@sbgtv.com.