In a candid exchange aboard Air Force One on Sunday, President Donald Trump said that the new 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom is merely the surface layer of a much larger, “massive” subterranean military installation. “Now the military is building a big complex under the ballroom,” Trump stated. “But the military’s building a massive complex under the ballroom. And that’s under construction and we’re doing very well. So we’re ahead of schedule. That’s part of it. The ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what’s being built under the military, including from drones.” The president’s comments provide the first official acknowledgment of the scale of the underground works. According to Trump, the facility is designed to meet modern security threats and capacity limitations at the aging White House. He emphasized that the site is being outfitted with high-grade bulletproof glass and “drone-proof” roofs and ceilings. “When we have dignitaries coming, like President Xi of China or anybody else, we have very small rooms; they’re not big enough to handle the kind of capacity that you need,” Trump explained, justifying the expansion. He dismissed reports of “fake windows,” asserting that the entire structure is built to the highest tactical specifications. The comments come as the administration battles the National Trust for Historic Preservation in federal court. The Trust sued in December 2025, alleging that the administration bypassed mandatory environmental reviews and violated federal statutes requiring “express authority of Congress” for new construction on federal grounds. Trump called the lawsuit “stupid.” A central pillar of the legal challenge is the project’s funding mechanism. Trump reiterated on Sunday that it is privately funded. “We’re ahead of schedule and under budget. And all of this money, all of the money paid by myself and donors; it’s all donors. There’s not one dime of government money going into the ballroom.” The fate of the “ballroom-turned-shed” now rests with U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who is expected to rule on a request to halt construction. If the injunction is denied, the military’s “massive complex” will likely proceed toward completion.