On March 8, 2026, a rumor that two members of U.S. President Donald Trump's Cabinet had commissioned nuclear bomb shelters appeared on social media. Snopes readers wrote in asking for more information about the claim.
We found the claim originated in a March 8 article by the British newspaper The Telegraph about Ron Hubbard, the owner of Atlas Survival Shelters. Hubbard (no relation to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, according to the article), said inquiries about his shelters have gone up "tenfold" since the U.S. and Israel began a war against Iran on Feb. 28.
According to The Telegraph, Hubbard said he had "two senior Cabinet members in the Trump administration" as clients, and the rumor spread from there.
Snopes was unable to confirm or deny any other aspect of the rumor, so we've left this claim unrated.
Snopes reached out to Atlas Survival Shelters for comment, but had not heard back. We also contacted representatives for every member of Trump's Cabinet. Only the Department of Justice (which is led by Attorney General Pam Bondi) had replied by time of publication, calling the rumor "completely false." We'll update this article if we receive additional responses.
While the article did not name the politicians who were purportedly Atlas clients, Hubbard told The Telegraph that most of his clients are "Christian, conservative CEOs" but that in recent years several tech moguls had come knocking at his door. He said he helped design a bunker for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg under his ranch in Hawaii, for instance.
According to the report, Hubbard also said he helped design a "'man cave'-style shelter" for Andrew Tate, a self-described misogynist who faces charges of rape and human trafficking in both Romania and the United Kingdom.