Featured Image Credit: YouTube/zackdfilms
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, YouTube
Emily Brown
Donald Trump has shared impressive plans on how to protect the US with his 'Golden Dome', but have you ever wondered what might happen if the White House itself was targeted with explosives?
The president shared plans of the Golden Dome earlier this year, when he expressed hopes that the new security measure, designed to detect and stop missiles intended for the US, would be 'fully operational before the end of [his] term'.
But with a potential price tag of $175 billion, creating the Golden Dome is easier said than done.
As development continues, the US continues to rely on existing security measures - one of which involves the 761-foot-long tunnel that connects the basement of the East Wing in the White House to the nearby Treasury Building.
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A simulation created by YouTuber Zack D. Films shows how this tunnel may come in handy if the White House was being targeted from above, with the video showing the POTUS escaping through the lengthy tunnel into the safety of an underground bunker.
Check it out here:
According to a 1988 article from The Washington Post, the tunnel between the two government buildings was constructed under the orders of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who held office from 1933 to 1945.
The government had previously claimed that the tunnel had been boarded up. However, the article states it's been reported to have been utilized by high-profile people looking to leave the White House without being spotted by press, as Tricia Nixon and her husband, Edward F. Cox, are reported to have done in 1972.
The tunnel is shaped into a zig-zag pattern to help it withstand blasts, and is guarded by the Secret Service. It's reported to be 7 feet (2.1 m) tall and 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, and leads to the secure basement of the Treasury Building.
Also hidden underground for the president is a bunker, though Robert Darling, a Marine who spent part of 9/11 in the White House bunker, has revealed that only certain people are allowed inside.
This exclusive list includes those considered to be at the 'top of the food chain', Darling claimed.
Speaking to BBC News in 2018, Randy Sowell, an archivist at the Truman President Library in Independence, Missouri, explained: "You have to maintain a chain of command. Or there'd be complete chaos."
Darling claimed that during his time in the bunker, those allowed inside included the vice president, the vice president's wife, the national security adviser and the defence secretary.