Trump Takes Melania on Weird Tour of Vandalized White House
The president showed off his new helipad, after ripping up the South Lawn.
President Donald Trump on Friday showed Melania Trump the new helipad on the White House South Lawn, near the in-progress ballroom and some of his other controversial construction projects.
Trump, 80, toured the site with the first lady, 56, after their return from the Pentagon, where the president seemed to struggle to stay awake during a memorial service for victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Donald Trump Jr., 48, accompanied them.
The granite helipad had to be reworked midway through construction, when Trump ordered the slope of the lawn to be redone.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In the background were strips of sod that still have to be laid out on the South Lawn, which Trump ripped up in order to level it with the helipad.
“The lawn will gently be reshaped to meet the new helipad,” one White House official told the Daily Beast in August.
Donald Trump Jr. was also touring the site on Friday.
Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS
Work on the helipad got off to a rocky start last month, with Trump demanding a redo following weeks of around-the-clock work. This involved taking apart the 100-foot-wide granite presidential seal. Trump then questioned the need to reslope the lawn, The Washington Post reported.
“We had a lot of slope on it, and I felt it was too much slope,” Trump told reporters during a tour of the project last month.
The South Lawn and helipad as seen on Sept. 8
Eric Lee/REUTERS
The lawn and helipad are two of the president’s White House projects, which have a combined estimated cost of $927 million, according to the Post. The White House ballroom is the centerpiece, replacing the historic East Wing that Trump tore down last fall. Construction on the structure continues, following a friendly Supreme Court ruling in late August.
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The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
The helipad (left) and ballroom (right) under construction at the White House in August.
Evan Vucci/REUTERS
The ballroom, former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged last October, was the president’s “main priority.”
On Tuesday, Melania made an appearance in the Rose Garden, which her husband controversially paved over, as part of the White House Historical Association’s Presidential Sites Summit, where she spoke about the beauty of the White House—or at least what remains of it.
In a speech titled “The White House: America’s Architectural Autobiography,” Melania said the presidential home “stands as an architectural autobiography of America, embodying the enduring values of ambition, democracy, and civic life through its design, craftsmanship, and the objects within.”
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