Trump makes Shock Admission about Secret Bunker

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2:45Michael Popok:Leave it to Donald Trump to not only publicly humiliate himself with a misunderstanding and misapprehension of the clear and precise words of a federal judge who just red tagged the ballroom construction project, but at the same time compromised national security all in the same comments he's making about the ballroom project. He's telling the world and our enemies about all of the security features that he intends on using built below the ballroom, which he now refers to as just a shed for the purposes of covering a massive security bunker, the extension of the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, which apparently is now going to go underneath the ballroom.

3:30Michael Popok:That's our president for you. He can't read. He can't understand legal principles. And he's also selling out our national interests in defending himself. I'm Michael Popak. You're here on Midas Touch and on Legal AF. It all started yesterday when we woke up to the great news that Judge Leon in a 35-page decision, which was punctuated literally with 18 exclamation marks and a smattering of pleas, almost eye rolls reflected in text, he, Judge Leon, granted the National Trust for Historic Preservation their preliminary injunction to stop the vertical construction or any more construction at the site of the ballroom because it violates the laws of Congress.

4:19Michael Popok:Separation of powers is ultra-various, meaning it is without express statutory authorization. See, Donald Trump told the American people, I don't need congressional authority. I can tear down any part or all of the parts of the people's house while I'm a temporary occupant because I'm not taking public money. First of all, that is always a lie. There is public money being used, even though he's also taken in$400 million, although we don't know where it is. We don't know what account it's sitting in, but we've been told he's taken in a fair amount of the$400 million for double the cost of the ballroom build that's going on right now from American corporations and tech companies.

5:02Michael Popok:But the employees that work for the president on the White House staff, they're paid with our taxpayer dollars. And so for every minute or every hour that they spend on the ballroom project, that is our taxpayer public money. And the way that Congress can approve, because they are, as the judge pointed out, they hold the keys to all federal property in memoriam. And Donald Trump is only, as any other president is, a temporary resident. That the only way Congress can approve of a construction project this expansive, this comprehensive, is if they appropriate money. And even if they don't appropriate money, they have to approve the construction.

5:43Michael Popok:And all the examples, as Judge Leon pointed out, all the examples that Donald Trump used. Well, in 1974, Gerald Ford put in a pool where there used to be FDR's movie theater. I put in a golfing area and I replaced the fence. Like, yeah, but you did that with congressional approval. Every major project at the White House, the North Portico, the South Portico, the complete renovation, electrical walls down to the studs during Truman's era was done with congressional approval. Now, Donald Trump got his preliminary approvals. He got the Fine Arts Commission, which he controls, took 12 minutes to approve his plans, which is remarkable.

6:29Michael Popok:The National Planning Commission, which he controls, is about to vote tomorrow. But where's the congressional approval? Now, Donald Trump has already taken advantage of Judge Leon and his proposal that Trump appeal if he doesn't like the ruling and he'll stay the order for 14 days to allow the appeal. So Trump's appealed, you know, maybe he dropped off the appeal on the way into the United States Supreme Court, where he was busy trying to look presidential in a weakened state by attending the oral argument. First time a sitting president has ever gone to an oral argument of the United States Supreme Court about birthright citizenship.

7:09Michael Popok:But here's the part where Donald Trump screws up on the analysis. he says that that um his reading or somebody reading it to him of what the judge ruled allows him to continue because he'll be able to do security work that's not what the what's not with the issue and then he says yeah we got drones and bulletproof glass and we got grass and drones. I'm like, why are you telling our enemy about the makeup and the components of this extended presidential PEOC, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center? Why are you disclosing that? And you've got it wrong anyway. First, I'm going to play you the clip of Donald Trump about what he thinks the order says.

7:59Michael Popok:And then I'm going to read to you from the order to show you that he's dead wrong. And people are going to have to be rushing back into court on this very issue before Judge Leon. And they're going to play this video, I'm sure. Play the video. He also said, but this is positive for us. I'm allowed, meaning we are allowed to continue building as necessary to, let's see, what is that? To cover the safety and security of the White House and its ground. So it says here very carefully the safety and security have to be protected of the White House grounds. Well, that's what we're doing because everything's bulletproof glass, et cetera, et cetera, including the ballroom.

8:45And then it goes construction and all of the things necessary. It says personal safety of the president and his staff are a part of that. So it talks about that we're allowed to continue building. In other words, he put an order on, and even that he gave 14 days. We don't need it because that's what we're doing. He's allowed to continue building as necessary. And when it talks about the safety and security of the White House and its grounds. So just so you know, I wrote some of the thing down. We have a drone proof roof, and it talks about the president and his staff. Well, we're not a lot of bulletproof glass.

9:26The White House was built a long time ago. This has the highest level of, in fact, they call this graph, this grass, the glass, it's bulletproof and it's ballistic proof. It's very thick. It's like that. And it's going 45 feet high. And every window is covered. Every door is covered. The roof is drone proof. We have secure air handling systems. You know, bad things happen in the air if you have bad people. We have bio-defense all over. We have secure telecommunications and communications all over. We have bomb shelters that we're building. We have a hospital and very major medical facilities that we're building.

10:22We have all of these things. So that's called I'm allowed to continue building as necessary. So think of that for the safety of the president. So we have all these things. So on that, we're OK.

10:37Michael Popok:That's not what the order says. There's actually a memorandum opinion. And then there is an order that goes along with it. In the memorandum opinion, the judge addresses the large hole issue. OK, the law of holes. Defendant on page 33. Defendants, that's the Trump side, predictably object, arguing that any delay to construction would imperil national security and expose the White House to damage. In other words, we got a big hole in our side yard. We need to secure it. Okay. Grasping for straws, Judge Leon says, defendants call the construction site a coordinated and managed safety hazard that has disrupted existing security procedures.

11:20Michael Popok:Thus, according to defendants, any construction delay will undermine national security. Thus, according to defendants, any construction delay will undermine national security. Judge then repeats, please! While I take seriously the government's concerns regarding the safety and security of the White House grounds and the president himself, the existence of a large whole besides the White House is, of course, a problem of the president's own making. Bald assertions of national security cannot excuse the government's failure to follow the law. Footnote 20, based on my review, I do not find any injunction halting construction would jeopardize national security.

12:04Michael Popok:He then goes on. On page 34, I acknowledge that this case raises novel and weighty issues. That halting an ongoing construction project may raise logistical issues. I will therefore delay enforcement for 14 days. I will also exclude construction necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House from the scope of the injunction. What he means is, and he clarifies it in footnote 21, the court gives fair notice to defendants that any above ground construction over the next 14 days that is not in compliance with my order is at risk of being taken down. Build it at your own risk. You may be demolishing it.

12:49Michael Popok:In his order, which Donald Trump fumbles by leaving out words because he apparently can't read, he says that the defendants are enjoined from taking any action, some page two of the order, in furtherance of the physical development of the proposed ballroom at the site of the former site of the East Wing, including but not limited to any further demolition, site prep, landscape alteration, excavation, foundation work, or other construction or related work other than actions strictly necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House and its grounds, including the ballroom construction site, and provide for the personal safety of the president and his staff.

13:36Michael Popok:That just means cover the hole. That just means to cover the hole, put up walls down there if you have to, no vertical construction, above ground construction, finish up what you've got. Busy days, big goals, but no time to cook. I've been using Factor. Fully prepared meals designed by dieticians and crafted by chefs. So you can eat well without the planning or cooking. One of my favorites lately is the garlic herb salmon. It fits perfectly into my February routine with lean protein, colorful vegetables, whole food ingredients, and healthy fats. Plus no refined sugars, no artificial sweeteners, and no refined seed oils.

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15:04Michael Popok:One free breakfast item per box for one year while subscription is active. Now, let me just give the part where Donald Trump has basically revealed, as you heard, all of the trade secrets that I'm sure are spies against this loved hearing. On Air Force One just the other day, he basically said the entire project is all about national security because somebody put it in his ear that if he talks more about national security, it'll strengthen his hand. and basically has now declaimed that the big royal golden ballroom, you know, it's perfect on the arrival of King Charles, by the way, is really just a shed that he put over security operations that are now being built under the White House.

15:48Michael Popok:Thanks for telling everybody where they are. Play that clip. We just got these in from the architects. A lot of people are talking about how beautiful the ballroom is. For 150 years, they've wanted to build a ballroom at the White House. Here's another view. This is coming from right opposite the Treasury Building. Beautiful capital. Here's a view from the south with the porch, which is a porch, and it's also a fire stair, basically leading down to the grounds. Now the military is building a big complex under the ballroom, which has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed.

16:29But the military is building a massive complex under the ballroom and that's under construction and we're doing very well. So we're ahead of schedule, that's part of it. And the ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what's being built under the military, including from drones and including from any other thing.

16:47Michael Popok:Now, we have hardened facilities. We've always had hardened facilities. I'm not revealing state secrets. The PEOC, the President's Emergency Operations Center, and the Situation Room, which are hardened facilities, kind of like panic rooms for the president, where he can go for hours or maybe a day or two, are directly under the White House. They've been there since the 1950s. I'm not sure how hardened they are, but they are under there to allow the president to run operations from a secure location within the White House. This apparently is what Donald Trump is extending into the foundational area underneath the ballroom.

17:25Michael Popok:There's two other major hardened sites in America that are well known. You can Google Earth them. One of them is in Mountain Weather, Virginia. It's the Emergency Operations Center. It's a hardened facility, and it's where all of civilian non-Department of Defense personnel, including the White House, would go in an emergency in Virginia, Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center. In Raven Rock, on the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, that's where the Department of Defense would operate. It's in a mountain-hardened facility, like a James Bond style, and that's where they would operate. So if you can operate for a few days, you do it at the White House, at the PEOC, in the Situation Room.

18:13Michael Popok:If things get really hairy, then the government decamps to Mount Weather, Emergency Operations Center in Virginia, and the Department of Defense, the Pentagon, goes to Raven Rock. I got all that. But I don't think you should be talking about design features, security features of the new and improved PEOC. Should you? I don't think so. And maybe somebody should explain to Donald Trump that he just lost, that he's not going to be able to continue with ballroom construction, that all that Judge Leon meant, obviously, from the reading, a close reading of the order and the opinion, is that you need to secure the site.

18:50Michael Popok:You got an open hole. Okay, secure the site. Cap it. Secure it. Make sure that people can't tunnel their way in or lift up a tarp and go underneath and get into the White House. I get that part. But no construction. No vertical construction. Stop building the ballroom. It is red tagged. It's as if the judge was a glorified zoning enforcement officer for your town and he just drove by and put a giant red tag on the project. Now, this will be subject to an appeal. He's not going to stay his order, Judge Leon, because he already gave 14 days. Effectively, he did stay his order. So now they're going to have to run, as they have, to the D.C., the Federal Circuit Court, the appellate court for D.C.'s federal courts, which sits over district court judges like Judge Leon.

19:37Michael Popok:There'll be a three-judge panel. They'll decide whether they're going to do a stay or not. I'll report on it here on Midas Dutch. If they stay, they stay. If they don't, they don't. If they don't stay, Donald Trump will try to, I'm sure, lob a grenade into the United States Supreme Court on an emergency docket, just what John Roberts, the chief justice, doesn't want to deal with, and decide whether he's going to be able to continue to build this ballroom or not. Fundamentally, and this is up in our Legal AF substack, fundamentally, the opinion stands for the proposition that the president, I'll read it to you from the first paragraph of the order, The president of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations.

20:23Michael Popok:He is not the owner, exclamation mark. President Trump claims that he has given him, that the Congress has given him authority in existing statutes to construct the East Wing Ballroom Project and to do it with private funds. But the judge took a look at all those statutes and said, at best, it's for repair. It's for minor remediation, paint job. Even you knew that, Trump, when you put in a fence in 2019, you went through a whole approval process by Congress. And just because you're taking private money doesn't mean you're out from under Congress. And he demanded that Congress step forward and approve it or not approve it.

21:00Michael Popok:Here's what he says in his final paragraph on page 34, Judge Leon. Where does this leave us? Unfortunately for defendants, unless and until Congress blesses this project through a statutory authorization, Construction has to stop! But here is the good news. It's not too late for Congress to authorize it. The president may at any time go to Congress to obtain expressed authority and do so with private funds if you want. Indeed, Congress may even choose to appropriate funds for the ballroom or decide some other funding scheme is acceptable. Either way, Congress will thereby retain its authority over the nation's property and its oversight over government spending.

21:41Michael Popok:The National Trust interests will be vindicated and the American people will benefit from the branches of government exercising their constitutionally prescribed roles. And the judge ends it this way. Not a bad outcome. That! I'm Michael Popak without the exclamation marks. Thanks for being here on Midas Touch and Legal AF. Come over to Legal AF YouTube channel, hit the free subscribe button, help us continue to grow our pro-democracy channel. Until my next report, I'm Michael.

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