The Presidential Emergency Operations Center, built for FDR in 1942, served a crucial role post-9/11 and is undergoing new expansions under Trump.

The contract for Trump's $400 million White House ballroom project remained secret until Public Citizen won its release in federal court.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court is allowing President Donald Trump to continue building a $400 million ballroom at the White House, ruling a day after a lower court judge continued to block above-ground construction on the site of the former East Wing.

A federal judge has again ordered President Donald Trump to pause construction of a massive new ballroom at the White House, rejecting the president’s “disingenuous” bid to circumvent an earlier ruling against the project by claiming that it needed to proceed for national security reasons.

Trump has publicly discussed the construction of the ballroom on roughly a third of days so far this year, according to a Washington Post analysis

The status of a decades-old bunker beneath the now-demolished East Wing is unclear, but the Trump administration has cited security concerns in its legal filings in favor of continuing construction.

The Trump administration had argued that the entire ballroom construction needed to proceed or it would leave the White House "open and exposed."

Trump claimed in October that he'd been offered a steel donation for the ballroom worth around $37 million

The White House is urging a federal appeals court to allow construction to continue on President Donald Trump's $400 million ballroom, arguing it will help provide protection both for the president's family and the country as a whole. The ballroom is "a ...

The order comes as the Trump administration challenges a lower court ruling that the estimated $300-million project requires congressional approval.