President Donald Trump’s sweeping renovation of the White House, a hotspot of outrage for his detractors, is set to include one of the most secure facilities of the U.S. government.

Trump is temporarily demolishing the White House’s East Wing — which his administration eventually plans to rebuild and modernize — to construct The White House State Ballroom. The East Wing was significantly expanded during World War II, mainly to conceal the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), an underground bunker.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Thursday press briefing that there will be security enhancements made regarding the bunker. Anonymous sources confirmed to CBS News senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs that the PEOC will be upgraded during the renovation and the White House Military Office will handle the undertaking, Jacobs wrote on X Wednesday.

Trump has said the U.S. military is “deeply involved” in the ongoing work, though the White House has not specified what role defense personnel are playing.

A 2020 Military Times account described the bunker under the East Wing as a Cold War-era structure built to “withstand a direct nuclear hit,” accessible only by elevator behind multiple vault doors with biometric access controls. The White House at the time said the exact specifications of the facility were “classified.”

US President Donald Trump shows a rendition of the East Wing of the White House currently being demolished to build a ballroom as he meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 22, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

The Treasury Department recently instructed its employees not to take or share photographs of the East Wing demolition, citing potential exposure of “sensitive items, including security features or confidential structural details,” according to the Wall Street Journal. The directive followed viral social media posts showing heavy construction equipment tearing into the building.

The East Wing was first built in 1902 under President Theodore Roosevelt and later reconstructed in 1942 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, mainly to hide the newly built complex beneath it. The underground facility was designed to serve as a secure command post for the president and senior staff in the event of a national emergency or attack on the nation’s capital.

The PEOC has been upgraded periodically over the decades, most notably after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when it served as a secure command site for Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior officials.

The latest construction project, however, is the first time in modern history that the East Wing — and the structures above the PEOC — have been completely demolished.