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WASHINGTON — <\/span>Secrecy surrounding White House security makes details hard to come by, but President Donald Trump’s court fight over his $400 million ballroom casts some light on an underground bunker at the site that has had a role in history. <\/p>\n The bunker emerged in the Trump administration’s court fight against the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is challenging the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom project. A federal appeals court<\/a> last week permitted the president to continue with construction of the project at the site of the former East Wing, which was demolished last fall<\/a>. <\/p>\n That ruling put on hold a lower-court judge’s order blocking aboveground construction but exempted work to ensure the safety and security of the White House. The Republican administration\u2019s appeal cited materials that would be installed to make a \u201cheavily fortified\u201d facility, including adding bomb shelters, military installations and a medical facility underneath the ballroom. <\/p>\n The history of a bunker beneath the East Wing dates to Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s presidency, when an underground bomb shelter was installed in 1942 after the United States had entered World War II. Beyond that, detail is obscured by secrecy resulting from concerns about presidential safety. <\/p>\n Garrett Graff, a historian and national security author, said the Presidential Emergency Operations Center beneath the East Wing was always intended to be for short-term use. <\/p>\n \u201cThe whole point of the sort of presidential evacuation and continuity of the presidency is you want to get the president out of the place where everyone knows that he is and get him into a place where people don\u2019t know where he is,\u201d Graff said. <\/p>\n Among the most high-profile flights to an underground bunker at the White House involve the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when Vice President Dick Cheney was taken there. <\/p>\n A Secret Service agent burst into the West Wing room, grabbed Cheney<\/a> by the belt and shoulder and led him to a bunker underneath the White House. \u201cHe didn\u2019t say, \u2018Shall we go?\u2019\u201d Cheney told NBC News years later. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t polite about it.\u201d<\/p>\n More recently, Trump was rushed to a White House bunker<\/a> in 2020 amid protests stemming from the death of George Floyd. At the time, there were chants from protesters at Lafayette Park that could be heard in the building, and Secret Service and law enforcement officers struggled to control the crowds. <\/p>\n Matthew Quinn, deputy director of the Secret Service, wrote in court filings that it’s important for the ballroom project to go forward for security at the White House. <\/p>\n \u201cAn above-ground slab and topping structure is needed to ensure that key underground structures with a security purpose are properly protected and strengthened,\u201d Quinn wrote. <\/p>\n He added: \u201cLeaving the project site unfinished imperils the ability of the Secret Service to meet its statutory mission to protect the President.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump last month offered a list of what\u2019s being done to enhance security while the ballroom is built.<\/p>\n \u201cThe roof is droneproof. We have secure air-handling systems. You know, bad things happen in the air if you have bad people,\u201d the president said. \u201cWe have biodefense all over. We have secure telecommunications and communications all over. We have bomb shelters that we\u2019re building. We have a hospital and very major medical facilities that we\u2019re building.\u201d<\/p>\n The president took to social media to criticize the lower-court ruling<\/a> and said the underground portion wouldn\u2019t work without the aboveground facility as well. <\/p>\n The National Trust for Historic Preservation has argued that Trump overstepped his authority<\/a> by moving forward with the project without getting approval from key federal agencies and Congress.<\/p>\n