Donald Trump and his family were whisked to an underground bunker not used since Dick Cheney took shelter there during 9/11 as unrest sparked by the murder of unarmed black man George Floyd raged outside over the weekend. The White House itself went dark.
The New York Times reports: “Nervous for his safety, Secret Service agents abruptly rushed the president to the underground bunker used in the past during terrorist attacks. … Mr. Trump and his family have been rattled by protests near the Executive Mansion that turned violent for a third night on Sunday.”
The paper adds: “It was not clear what specifically prompted the Secret Service to whisk Mr. Trump to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, as the underground bunker is known, but the agency has protocols for protecting the president when the building is threatened. … Vice President Dick Cheney was brought to the bunker on Sept. 11, 2001, when the authorities feared one of the planes hijacked by Al Qaeda was heading toward the White House. President George W. Bush, who was out of town until that evening, was rushed there later that night after a false alarm of another plane threat.”