Is Trump Building a Massive Data Center Beneath the East Wing? If So, Why?

“All of these grandiose ideas surrounding AI, all of that needs a home.”

Much has happened since the Season began, and there are many fronts to catch you up on. Let’s start with this — Donald Trump’s “ballroom.”

Is he building only a ballroom? I think not.

The Drey Dossier

The Drey Dossier is an investigative reporting project run by Audrey Henson (Audrey → “Drey”). This is my first exposure to Henson, though her YouTube channel has 66,000 subscribers, her TikTok feed has roughly 135,000 followers, and her Substack is doing quite well at 59,000 subscribers. For a sense of her background, read her LinkedIn bio.

I can’t speak for the rest of her work, but regarding her ballroom analysis, I think she’s on solid ground. There’s meat on that bone.

The White House ‘Ballroom’ That Isn’t

For the full information she provides, watch the video below, or better, read the accompanying article at her Substack site.

About the ballroom project, I’ll leave you to listen and click to see the particulars. They are many:

• from contractor — Clark Construction, which lists classified data centers among their projects

• to architect — Shalom Baranes, the man who designed the Pentagon’s post-9/11 hardening project

• to power grid upgrades — she says Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) is replacing 45-year-old power feeders and increasing power capacity in this area by five hundred percent (a statement I couldn’t verify)

• to water — DC Water’s spending increase by $300 million, plus PEPCO’s emergency request for a relocation of water infrastructure and large-scale waterline modifications near the East Wing

• to funding entities — for example, Carrier, which could be donating its brand-new Carrier Quantum Leap product, a “comprehensive suite of innovative, energy-efficient solutions for data center thermal management”. Other companies could be donating significant product as well: Caterpillar, which makes heavy industrial generators; high-tech and network entities like Palantir, Google, Booz Allen and Amazon; and Blackstone, which is heavily involved in large-scale power infrastructure in the DC area.

• to even the presence (she says) of caissons on the site, structures used for working deep underground

• and military design involvement per Trump, because national security.

Read the piece for the full detail. This is interesting work. Note the parallel to Jerusalem’s data center, which is the same size and cost as the White House “ballroom” — about 90,000 ft. sq. with a price north of $300 million. The Jerusalem facility is 160 feet underground. Let’s see the size of the hole Trump digs under his dance floor.

The What and the Why

This leads us to larger questions — the what and the why. Henson addresses the what (see below). For the why, we’re left to surmise.

For the what, I’ll quote from the end of the video (emphasis mine):

Okay, so what does any of this actually mean? Well, I think we should go back to the underground data centers in Jerusalem because understanding why Israel built those might tell us why Trump is building one here. Allegedly. Supposedly. In my opinion. So, Israel built those facilities for something called Project Nimbus, which is their government cloud infrastructure. And we’ve seen what this looks like in practice, right? I mean, the AI system that Israel is using in Gaza, the targeting systems, the surveillance infrastructure, the operational decision-making, and that all runs on this underground data center network. I mean, we’re talking full AI takeover, military operations, intelligence gathering, government AI, information systems like banking, critical infrastructure controls, everything that keeps the country running. And they put it nine stories underground because they needed it to survive. Not just survive a power outage or a cyber attack, but to survive a war. I mean, they needed it to survive missile strikes and keep running no matter what happens above the ground. Because when you have your entire government running on AI systems, that is now the brain of your country. and you have to protect the brain of your country with a thick, thick skull. That’s what data sovereignty looks like. That’s continuity of government. And that’s what AI warfare infrastructure actually looks like. And then I’m looking at Project Stargate announced on January 21st, 2025, Trump’s first full day in office. And Larry Ellison is going on and on about this $500 billion AI infrastructure that’s going to save the government and cure cancer. But all of these grandiose ideas surrounding AI, all of that needs a home. And that’s why I think it has to be at the White House specifically because when infrastructure is a part of the executive office of the president, then it has to be classified, protected, exempt from oversight and the president has to have direct access to it. And lest we forget, the east wing sits directly above the presidential emergency operations center, the PEOC bunker. It’s five stories deep, staffed 24/7 by military offices. And by demolishing the entire east wing, they removed every structure blocking access to that bunker. And now they can expand it and go deeper or integrate new infrastructure if they’d like. And because it’s at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, executive privilege covers all of it. I mean, think about it. The president controls what gets disclosed and what doesn’t. I mean, this is what the government running on AI with all of that power consolidated under executive control in a facility that can survive anything and Congress can’t audit looks like. And look, I’m sure they’ll build a ballroom on top. You know, they’ll host state dinners and take photos with world leaders and gowns and tuxedos, and maybe it’ll even look fabulous. But don’t kid yourself about what this was actually built for, because the ballroom isn’t the project. The ballroom is the lid.

So the “what” could be an AI data center capable of running the whole country — yes, the whole country — from an underground White House bunker that’s been hardened for war.

Protection From Whom?

But the “why” is a problem. I mean, why keep this a secret?

If Henson is right about what our rulers are doing, so what? If they’re doing it, China no doubt knows. And eventually all of the nations who hate us will know. And besides, you’d expect a responsible military — whose involvement Trump said is real — to consider this kind of construction part of its job.

So why keep this building a secret from the American people, if that’s what it is? Alex Karp fear and aggression? An excess of secrecy? Or something far worse?

Ask: What would a massive Palantir-fueled data center do, one that was hooked into all of our infrastructure, each piece of our digital self? What are its goals? What do our new-minted masters, those Thiel-driven souls, have in mind for us next — protection from enemies without, or dangers within, a rebellious and spied-upon people whose lives just get worse?

“That’s what data sovereignty looks like,” says Henson above. “That’s continuity of government. And that’s what AI warfare infrastructure actually looks like.”

Continuity of government — because challenged by what? If external threats only, why lie?

I don’t have the answer, but I fully stand by the question.