loading . . . 'President under siege': Trump revelation proves heās retreating to his 'bunker phase' Authoritarians and their bunkers have a long and storied history. Probably the most well-known was Adolf Hitler, who spent his ignominious final hours holed up in a bunker in Berlin. And in recent weeks, Russian strongman Vladimir Putin has been hiding out from a rumored incipient coup in a palatial bunker of his own. Now, wonders i Paper contributor Sarah Baxter, has President Donald Trump āentered the bunker phase of his presidency?ā Maybe or maybe not, but two things are certain: he is building a bunker, and he āknowsā his presidency is failing.
According to Baxter, evidence of Trumpās inclination to hunker in his bunker came earlier this week, when he expressed hesitancy at leaving the White House to attend his sonās wedding, saying, āUhhhh. Heād like me to go. Iām gonna try and make it. But itās going to be just a small, little private affair⦠I said, āThis is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things.āā
As others have pointed out, his desire to remain on and fortify the White House campus has grown over the course of his second term, particularly since the attempted assassination at the White House Correspondentsā Dinner in April. And while heād already been pushing for his ballroom for a year at that point, his brush with death spurred him to make it a key priority and crank up the security costs.
Writes Baxter, āFor an estimated cost of $1 billion, a bill taxpayers would foot, the ballroom will extend six floors underground, with its own command and communications center, military hospital, and a hardened roof of āimpenetrable steelā with a base āfor unlimited numbers of drones,ā Trump said excitedly on a tour of the site. There can be no more powerful symbol of a president under siege.ā
But Trumpās project has hit a roadblock as Congress has balked at his billion-dollar request, with Democrats using parliamentary procedure to kill the funding and Republicans panicking in the face of growing midterm headwinds. The presidentās tendency to attack those in his own party by endorsing primary challengers has only entrenched resistance, as āthe finely-balanced Senate and House now harbor several seriously disaffected Republican lawmakers who have suddenly found a spine now they have been deselected and have nothing left to lose. They are bent on scuttling Trumpās plans.ā
Whatās more, writes Baxter, āIndulging the President ā whose approval rating stands at just 35 percent, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll ā risks alienating the substantial slice of voters outside the Trump bunker who are furious about inflation, fuel prices and the Iran war.ā But, āTrump usually gets what Trump wants, so I wouldnāt set too much store by these stirrings of rebellion. He is more disinhibited than ever and less inclined to care what anybody thinks.ā And with the ballroom construction already underway with a projected completion date of late 2028 ā right before Trump is supposed to leave office ā some have suggested that he might follow Putinās example and attempt to stay put.
Itās not such a far-fetched assertion. Following his loss in 2020, Trump reportedly told an aide, āIām just not going to leave,ā telling another, āWeāre never leaving ā how can you leave when you won an election?ā And while on the campaign trail in 2024, he himself said, āI shouldnāt have left.ā
So with that in mind, āWhat are the odds that, come January 2029, Trump will be holed up in his bunker, refusing to leave the White House?ā Baxter wonders. āIf I were a gambler, Iād place a bet in the prediction markets on this.ā http://dlvr.it/TSgZnc