Trump: 'Massive Complex' Is Going in Under the Ballroom

President Trump says the high-profile White House ballroom project comes with a big underground twist. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, he confirmed the military is constructing a "massive complex" beneath the new 90,000-square-foot event space, calling the work "ahead of schedule" and saying "the ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what's being built under." The information about the military complex "has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed," he said, per NBC News.

Previous reports had focused on a renovation of an existing East Wing bunker that Axios notes was created during World War II, but Trump's comments suggest a larger, still-undefined military facility is underway. The East Wing was demolished in October to make way for the roughly $400 million ballroom, a plan that has drawn fire from Democrats and preservationists. A federal judge last month declined to halt construction but indicated a preservation group might fare better if it retooled its lawsuit. The National Capital Planning Commission will vote on the design in April after receiving a wave of sharply negative public feedback, even as Trump touted the ballroom—shown to reporters in glossy renderings—as nearly a twin to the White House and, in his view, potentially "the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world."