There was already a bunker under the East Wing. If Trump chose to bulldoze it, that’s his own doing.

well, now, I've never been more against it

As if we needed any further confirmation that the bunker beneath it was the actually important part of the project.

(Can we please ensure that the bunker is stocked with at least one Luger pistol? For tradition's sake.)

Bunkers don’t need ballrooms.

Sounds like quite the waste of money then.

"I can't be expected to live in this glass house. Not after all these rocks I've been throwing."

Imagine being the poor bastards stuck in there with him. The smell alone ... !

It won't even be started before Trump pops his clogs.

Fuck that. President starts a war that results in missiles falling on DC he can go down with the ship.

As if there aren't dozens of steps before another country strikes upon the U.S.

Add the cost of ripping it up to the cost of restoring the white house for the next admin. Start with restoring the rose garden and getting the vegas decorations out.

I'd argue that Trump being hit by a missile attack would IMPROVE the USA national security.

Others are more sanguine. Paul Eckloff, a former Secret Service agent who served on Trump's detail and previously on Barack Obama's, argued that what has emerged in court so far does not amount to a 'genuine security breach,' saying operationally sensitive information remains classified.

He was more worried about the practical effect of having a giant dig site inside a secure perimeter. An open pit next to the Executive Residence, he said, inevitably alters the calculus for agents tasked with keeping intruders out and the president alive. 'The longer this is an active construction site, the more concerning it is from a general security posture,' Eckloff said.

I don't think it matters much from a national security standpoint, specifically because of this:

Judge Leon has not hidden his scepticism. At an earlier hearing, he dismissed the idea that Trump's safety required the ballroom to go ahead, describing the 'large hole' next to the White House as a 'problem of the President's own making.'

We don't protect the President because the President is some sort of exceptional, irreplaceable figure. The President is just some guy. If Trump gets shot, then Vance gets dropped into the slot and things keep on trucking. Hell, personally I think that the US would very probably be better-off with just about any other major politician at the wheel.

We protect the President because we don't want it to be viable to coerce the President via physical threat. We don't want a country to say "do X on Policy Y or maybe we kill you" and have that be something that can affect the President's policy-making.

In this case, Trump decided that he was going to go right ahead and create the security risk, so he's probably not especially concerned about it. If he wanted it to stop, which presumably he would if he were worried about being killed, he could stop it. Ergo, cocercion isn't a factor.

If Trump decides tomorrow that he wants to go wingsuit BASE jumping or something, I mean, okay, sure, whatever. The Secret Service can just sit around and munch popcorn and watch him face-plant into a hillside, as far as I'm concerned. The problem isn't the President dying, but him being affected by threats of him being killed.

That's also why we have lifetime Secret Service protection for the President after he leaves office. It's not like he's being President then, not like we'd lose whatever he's bringing to the table. But you don't want other parties to be able to threaten the guy in office with retribution after he leaves office.

I am seriously not the least bit concerned.

Maybe be the kind of person who doesn't fear people shooting missiles at them.

Will this $600m ballroom be finished before the end of president?

Maybe if you were decent person you could have not caused people to want to lob missiles at you.

you guys are trying to protect them?

Leave it a fucking hole in the ground.

Will it protect him from the Hauge?

The Trump-Epstein Scrotum of Terra-Interred Security, or TESTIS.

The other option was for Him to stop being a douche but that is not possible

Nah, Im not worried about missiles at all. Do it ... I dare you.

Build it, let him tour it, then lock it...and toss away the key

Not that I give trump credit for any kind of forward thinking, but could this plan been made by someone smarter than him to bulldoze the current bunker so that he could claim that taxpayers need to build a bunker at MaraLago?

We could have a referendum on how important it is to taxpayers to protect Trump from missiles. Maybe a simultaneous one for shooting one at him.

I think the hamburgers are more likely to end him than missiles.

Reminds me of that Brecht quote.

Some party hack decreed that the people
had lost the government's confidence
and could only regain it with redoubled effort.
If that is the case, would it not be be simpler,
If the government simply dissolved the people
And elected another?

Bertolt Brecht

It’s kind of difficult to tell what is really going on with the ballroom. It could very well be that the government has planned an upgrade for years and Trumps ball room is the perfect cover, so he may or may not be “playing along”.

Well how else will he wine and dine the new Iranian leaders?

Isn't that what Raven Rock is for?

Maybe we could reshape the ballroom to look like a bone spur?

Includes an EMP proof bar and a leaded shielded VIP room.

lmao horeshit