President Donald Trump held plenty of meetings at the White House this summer: with foreign delegations striking trade deals, Cabinet members plotting a government overhaul and industry executives seeking tariff relief.
But amid the various audiences, he’s also found time for discussions of a different purpose, reports CNN.
In recent weeks, Trump has gathered officials with varying responsibilities on the White House campus – including from the National Park Service, the White House Military Office and the Secret Service – to talk over his ideas for transforming the building and its grounds to his liking.
His specifications have been exacting, including finishes that closely resemble his gold-trimmed private clubs – or, in some cases, have been shipped directly from Mar-a-Lago.
His ambitions extend well beyond a temporary cosmetic makeover.
“It’ll be a great legacy project,” he told the CNN of his plans to construct a 90,000-square-foot ballroom off the East Wing of the mansion. “And I think it’ll be special.”
No president in recent memory has put his physical imprint on the executive mansion or its plot of land as much as Trump has done this year. Barely six months after re-entering office, his aspirations to dramatically alter the White House have now entered an advanced stage.
Two large flagpoles now tower over the North and South Lawns, their massive stars-and-stripes visible even to passengers landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport more than 10km away. Trump personally dictated the poles’ galvanised steel, tapered design and interior ropes, and oversaw their installation in June.
The Rose Garden has been stripped of its grass and paved over with stone, an attempt to replicate the patio at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump dines al fresco during his weekends away from Washington. The president made frequent check-ins this summer with the orange-shirted workers tearing out the grass and reinforcing the ground underneath, at one point inviting them into the Oval Office for a photo. Presidential seals have been embedded into the stone, and the drainage grates are styled like American flags.
The Oval Office itself is adorned with lashings of gold decoration, which Trump ordered up from a craftsman in Florida who’d worked on his Palm Beach estate, people familiar with the matter said. Tiny gold cherubs looking down from above the doorways came straight from Mar-a-Lago.
And soon, construction will begin on the new ballroom, whose footprint will amount to the first major extension of the White House in decades. Trump said he, along with other private donors, will foot the $200 million bill.
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