LANSING – The U.S. has built a secret underground “city” costing $21 trillion where the ultra-wealthy can hide out druing a “near-extinction event,” a former government official has claimed.

In what sounds like the plot of many science fiction movies, Catherine Austin Fitts, who served as the assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development under president George H.W. Bush, made the shocking allegation on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s podcast, according to Realtor.com.

A stunning $21 trillion in “unauthorized spending” occurred in the department between 1998-2015, according to a 2017 report released by Michigan State University economist Mark Skidmore.

Skidmore’s report had been prompted by Fitts referring “to a report which indicated the Army had $6.5 trillion in unsupported adjustments, or spending, in fiscal 2015.”

“Given the Army’s $122 billion budget, that meant unsupported adjustments were 54 times spending authorized by Congress. Typically, such adjustments in public budgets are only a small fraction of authorized spending,” the report noted.

While on “The Tucker Carlson Show,” Fitts said she spent years investigating where the $21 trillion had gone – and discovered there were 170 secret underground bases across the U.S.

“One of the things I’ve looked at in the process of looking at where all this money is going is the underground base, city infrastructure, and transportation system that’s been built,” she said.

“We have built an extraordinary number of underground bases and, supposedly, transportation systems,” including bases located below oceans, she claimed.

It was not immediately clear where the secret bunkers are located – or who among the elite might have access to them should disaster strike. It’s also unknown the scope of the bunkers or the features of everyday life they include.

The bases would be used if a “near-extinction event” were imminent – or for the government to carry out “secret” projects, including a secret space program, Fitts claimed.

Carlson noted he assumed such bases would only exist in Washington, D.C., to be used in the case of a “nuclear war,” to which Fitts responded: “Some of it is. It’s preparation for catastrophe.”

This story appeared in The Independent