It is well known that President Trump was a real-estate developer before descending his golden escalator and entering politics. And in his first term, he didn't really flex those muscles. But since returning to the White House, Trump has been on a remodeling spree.
"I have two jobs," Trump said recently. Commander in chief is one, but his real passion appears to be the second. "I have a construction job, which is really like relaxation for me because I have been doing it all my life."
There are many ways Trump has shaken things up in his first year back in office, including signing hundreds of executive orders and launching a global trade war. But somehow, he's also found the time to obsessively tweak decor and oversee several major renovations.
During a recent dinner speech meant to salute Kennedy Center Honorees such as Gloria Gaynor and the band Kiss, Trump took a 9-minute detour to discuss his various renovations. He recounted asking someone whether he was a better builder or politician.
"And they didn't know how to answer that question," Trump said with a laugh. "I'm not sure how to answer it either, if you want to know the truth, but I actually get great relaxation out of fixing the White House and fixing the Kennedy Center."
He admitted this does take his time and attention, but insisted he can fit it all in because unlike other people, "I don't really want to rest."
New projects
Since returning to office, Trump has bathed the Oval Office in gold, paved the Rose Garden, added giant flagpoles on the north and south lawn, weighed in on a restoration project at the Federal Reserve, replaced tile in the Lincoln Bathroom with marble, overseen a major overhaul of the Kennedy Center and even brought Trump-style luxury to a small passthrough at the White House known as the Palm Room.
In an interview with Laura Ingraham of Fox News, Trump explained that the old tile was cheap and broken. He replaced "lanterns that were terrible" with new chandeliers, and brought intense attention to every little detail.
"If you look at the air conditioner vent, it's book matched. Look at it," Trump said to Ingraham. "I can do that because I know that, you know, it's even available that you could do that. Very few people can do it."
Trump and members of his administration often refer to him as "a builder" and at a recent rally in North Carolina, Trump described himself as having strong opinions about the shape of the arms on chairs he put in his hotels. "I am a very aesthetic person," he said.
That was also Trump's explanation for why he would be weighing in on the design of the new Navy battleships he was ordering up, the "Trump class."
Trump even took time out from a speech to the United Nations General Assembly earlier this year to complain about long ago losing a contract to renovate the building.
"They had massive cost overruns and spent between $2 and $4 billion on the building and did not even get the marble floors that I promised them," Trump said. "You walk on Terraza, do you notice that?"
Big changes
Much like his expansive use of executive power, Trump isn't slowing down or asking permission. Take his ballroom project. The entire East Wing of the White House was torn down in October to make way for it, even as images of excavators tearing into the building sparked public outcry. What started out over the summer as a $200 million project funded by private donors has now ballooned.
"We're donating a building that's approximately $400 million," Trump shouted into a microphone at a recent Hanukkah celebration. "I should do it for less. I will do it for less. But just in case I say 400. Otherwise, if I go $3 over, the press will say it costs more."
Many presidents have made small changes to personalize the White House. A swimming pool here, a basketball court there. The East Wing, West Wing and Truman balcony were all additions and all controversial at the time, says Kate Andersen Brower, author of The Residence about the staff who work at the White House.
"This is the most extreme, the biggest footprint, the most personal addition," said Brower.
Personal, she says, because it and all the other White House changes are so unmistakably matched to Trump's personal aesthetic.
"This is about people 200 years from now knowing that he is president," said Brower. "And it's going to be impossible to miss that ballroom."
Trump has said he has no plans to name the ballroom after himself.
But his name is now emblazoned on Kennedy Center, a performing arts center created by Congress as a memorial to the late President John F. Kennedy. A Democratic congresswoman who is an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board filed a lawsuit challenging the renaming of the memorial, calling the action "unlawful" because the original name was assigned by Congress.
"It feels as though the president believes that this is his personal portfolio and not the portfolio owned by the American people," said Rebecca Miller, executive director of the DC Preservation League. "The way the administration has been moving forward indicates that they don't have any guardrails that they have to run up against."
She says Trump is making so many changes to so many historic places so quickly it is hard to keep up.
"President Trump is making the White House beautiful and giving it the glory it deserves at no cost to the taxpayer," said Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman. "Only people with a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome would find a problem with that."
Information about the ballroom project is set to be presented to the National Capital Planning Commission next month. Though it is now controlled by the president's allies, which means that whatever Trump and his team propose is unlikely to meet much resistance.
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