Donald Trump’s gilded White House ballroom was originally presented as a magnificent new setting for state dinners, celebrations and presidential spectacle.

Then it became a military facility.

Now, only days before the Supreme Court decides whether construction can continue, Trump has revealed another explosive element beneath the lavish project: bomb shelters.

The president made the disclosure Wednesday during an impromptu tour of the White House grounds, where he proudly showed reporters the progress on a new granite helipad being installed on the South Lawn.

For more than 20 minutes, Trump spoke enthusiastically about stone, architecture and his own renovation instincts. He signed a piece of granite that will reportedly be inserted into the helipad and praised the beauty of the expanding construction site.

But amid the boasting, Trump delivered a revelation that transformed the debate surrounding his ballroom.

“The ballroom is so much a military component with the drones and the bomb shelters and everything else that we have in there,” Trump told reporters.

It is believed to be the first time the president has publicly identified multiple bomb shelters as part of the project.

Trump described a future in which White House guests could arrive, walk along the redesigned grounds, drink cocktails outside and then enter the ballroom. The military, he said, could also use the new complex.

What began as an estimated $200 million event-space renovation has now reportedly doubled in projected cost to approximately $400 million—and expanded into a hardened national-security facility containing military infrastructure beneath its elegant public surface.

The president acknowledged that he initially wanted to keep those elements secret.

According to Trump, military officials approached him before work began and described a rare opportunity to build something they had wanted for generations.

“Sir, we have an opportunity to do something incredible here,” Trump recalled them saying. “We’ve been trying to do it for 100 years, but we’ve never had an opportunity like that.”

Trump said he gave them sweeping permission.

“Look, go ahead, design what you want,” he said.

The revelation comes at a critical moment in a legal battle over presidential power, congressional authority and the physical future of the White House.

Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked above-ground work on the ballroom. The court concluded that Trump could not unilaterally demolish parts of the White House or transform federal property without congressional approval and funding.

Trump’s lawyers responded with an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to allow construction to proceed. They portrayed the ballroom not as a luxury project but as an urgent national-security necessity.

According to the administration’s filing, any delay could endanger the president because of ongoing threats against him.

The legal argument cited one of the most extraordinary security incidents of Trump’s second term: an alleged Iranian plan to target Air Force One with a missile.

During that episode, Trump reportedly left the presidential aircraft in a catering vehicle and transferred to a more secure military plane with a selected group of aides. Other officials and journalists remained aboard the original aircraft, which continued as a decoy.

The administration now argues that the underground military components associated with the ballroom would provide necessary protection against similar threats.

Its lawyers have also claimed that the structure is being built with exceptionally durable concrete of the type used in nuclear-power facilities. Because of that construction, they argued, dismantling the project may already be practically impossible—even if a court ultimately orders its removal.

“That line has long since been crossed,” Solicitor General John Sauer said.

Critics view that argument as deeply troubling. If an administration can make a contested construction project irreversible before courts determine whether it was lawful, opponents argue, judicial review could become meaningless.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which brought the lawsuit, insists that national-security claims do not erase the requirement for congressional authorization.

Trump has “no unilateral legal authority—constitutional, statutory, or otherwise—to build a Ballroom on the site of the now-demolished East Wing, unless and until Congress expressly approves,” said Trust chief executive Brent Leggs.

“Each court that has reviewed this case has agreed with the National Trust,” he added. “We hope the Supreme Court will uphold the rule of law by stopping this illegal project.”

That final description remains the litigant’s position; the Supreme Court has not yet issued its decision.

Trump appeared confident Wednesday when asked whether the justices might rule against him.

“I hope that doesn’t happen,” he said. “I can’t imagine it happening.”

He dismissed the lawsuit as one that “should have never been brought” and returned to his favorite defense of the project: its appearance.

“We’ve gotten tremendous architectural reviews,” Trump said. “It’s beautiful.”

But beauty is no longer the only issue.

The Supreme Court must now consider a project that began as a ballroom, grew into a sprawling military complex and has reportedly been hardened with materials the administration says cannot realistically be removed.

Trump wanted a grand new stage above ground. Beneath it, he has now acknowledged, lies something the public was not originally meant to see.

The justices’ ruling Friday may determine whether those bomb shelters are a legitimate act of presidential protection—or the nearly irreversible foundation of an unprecedented expansion of executive power.