Trump says he went into White House bunker before protests swelled, only to inspect

President Trump said Wednesday that he went into the White House bunker last weekend as protests swell in the nation’s capital only to inspect the below-ground facility, not because of an imminent threat. 

“I've gone down two or three times – all for inspection. And you go there, some day you may need it,” he said on Brian Kilmeade's FOX News Radio show. “I looked at it. It was during the day, it was not a problem.”

Trump spoke amid critics and some in the news media saying he was ushered into the bunker Sunday night by Secret Service agents as the protests swelled and that he left the White House on Monday to visit nearby St. John’s Episcopal Church to prove he wasn’t sheltering in place – as other Americans had to live amid the violent protests across the country related to George Floyd’s death. 

“Well, it was a false report,” Trump also said, according to a transcript of the roughly 30-minute radio interview. “I went down during the day, and I was there for a tiny little short period of time, and it was much more for an inspection, there was no problem during the day.”

The bunker is reportedly for a terror attack and built in 2010 as part of a multi-million dollar renovation.