WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump unveiled yet another purported justification for his controversial plan to build a massive new ballroom and bunker under the East Wing of the White House he demolished: a rooftop “DronePort” that he says is needed to defend the nation’s capital from modern threats.
In a lengthy Truth Social post on Sunday, May 31, Trump claimed the proposed drone facility would be “perhaps, the most sophisticated anywhere in the World” that’s needed to safeguard Washington, DC, “long into the future.”
Trump also accused a federal judge, who put the brakes on the project on Friday, of undermining U.S. national security by allowing a lawsuit challenging the project to move forward.
“Judge Richard Leon should stop playing games with America’s Security!” Trump wrote. “If anything happens, he will be held responsible for the Death and Destruction caused to our Country.”
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a President George W. Bush appointee, ruled in late March that Trump lacked legal authority to build the 90,000-square-foot ballroom “absent express authorization from Congress.”
Leon issued an injunction that halted “above-ground construction of the planned ballroom,” but his order was quickly put on hold by an appeals court. Construction has continued, and so has legal wrangling over the project.
In the Truth Social post, Trump also accused Leon of having created “enough problems by allowing ‘Top Secret’ information to be released and exposed” in an amended lawsuit brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation last month.
Ever since the White House was a suspected target of the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorist attacks, successive administrations have adopted new protective measures to protect the home and office of the president. Those details have been consistently hidden from the public for fear of aiding those who would do America harm.
But Trump included in his post two detailed renderings of various drones on a massive rooftop like that envisioned for his new East Wing, despite criticizing Leon for sharing what he said was sensitive information.
“With the advent of highly sophisticated, and powerful, modern day weaponry, we can no longer defend Washington, D.C., with rifles and pistols, alone,” Trump wrote. “This ridiculous lawsuit must be dismissed, IMMEDIATELY!”
At least one security expert was concerned about the level of information Trump revealed in the renderings.
“Why in the world is Trump advertising White House defensive capabilities?” asked Larry Pfeiffer, a former senior CIA official who also served as senior director of the White House Situation Room, the president’s round-the-clock operations and intelligence center. “This only helps adversaries develop countermeasures. All to justify his vanity project. The work to preserve our government requires secrecy and seriousness.”
Javed Ali, a former senior U.S. counterterrorism official and member of the National Security Council under the first Trump administration, said it’s a good idea to create some kind of counter-drone capability as part of an evolving effort to protect the president and the White House.
But, he told USA TODAY, “Questions remain, however, about the operational aspects of this counter drone system,” including “how long it would take to create it with rigorous testing and evaluation, who would operate it and the rules of engagement and protocols under which it could be used.”
What began as Trump’s long-sought plan for a White House ballroom has steadily evolved into something far larger.
Trump initially promoted it as a way to host state dinners, receptions and other large events without relying on tents or outside venues. He later said a broader East Wing modernization was needed to replace aging facilities and improve security.
In December, the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed its initial lawsuit against Trump and several federal agencies aimed at halting the construction, saying it had not gone through a review process, had not completed an adequate environmental assessment or sought congressional authorization.
Trump disputed the group’s allegations, saying that “a President has never needed permission to change or enhance, because of the special grounds on which it sits, no matter how big (and important!), that enhancement may be.”
Since then, Trump has given a series of changing reasons for why the ballroom is needed, often providing more details about the underground bunker that has now grown – at least according to Trump’s plans – into a behemoth facility that will contain a hospital, high-tech weaponry and all manner of other bells and whistles that no prior president has asked for or deemed necessary.
As legal challenges mounted, Trump and his administration offered a growing list of national-security justifications.
They said the project would include hardened facilities, bomb shelters, military medical and research space, blast-resistant construction and enhanced protection for presidents and visiting dignitaries.
Most recently, Trump gave a softball interview with his daughter-in-law Lara Trump that included a tour of the White House ballroom building site and new details about the project.
In a Fox News report on May 30, Trump told the wife of his son Eric Trump that he plans to hold the next presidential inauguration in his new ballroom.
“When it’s finished, I’ll only have it for six − I’ll only have the use of it for six months,” Trump said in the pre-taped interview. “In the Capitol, I had 902 people, and it was still beautiful, but it was 902 people, and it’s not safe like this.”
“This is far more than a ballroom. Like you said, this goes down six floors,” Lara Trump said as they walked. Lara Trump did not say where she heard the new detail about the depth of the highly classified bunker, and Trump didn’t respond.
Trump only showed the Fox News crew the ground floor, but he alluded to weaponry in the interview as well.
“This will be the kitchen floor,” Trump said. “And then you have the drone ports and you have the sniper ports and you have everything above.”
“Wow,” Lara Trump responded. “We can’t wait to see it.”
“I would say it will be the greatest facility of its kind ever built by far,” Trump told the younger Trump at another point. “There’ll never be anything like it. And we’re ahead of schedule. We’re right on budget.”
The budget for the project has actually grown significantly, along with its size, in recent months, even as the president has faced more criticism – and legal challenges – as a result of it.
He told Lara Trump, “The military is involved, the Secret Service is involved. It’s a very secure, most secure facility ever built.”
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