President Trump has spent much of his second term trying to make his physical mark on D.C., earning — or perhaps awarding himself — the moniker of "builder-in-chief." "The best thing I do in life is build," he told reporters in May. Trump tore down the East Wing of the White House to build an even bigger ballroom (and military complex underneath). He built a helipad on the South Lawn after separately paving over the Rose Garden.
He had the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool repaved in "American flag blue," a project that was supposed to take two weeks but is still unfinished many months later, after a botched installation and several unfounded arrests. He's had new statues installed and existing ones restored, including two equestrian statues glaringly gilded over the summer. He wants to build a sculpture garden of "national heroes" in West Potomac Park and overhaul the locally beloved East Potomac Golf Links, changing it from a municipal resource into a championship-level venue.
Trump seeks to add his name to the Kennedy Center building, or else have it demolished altogether. He's trying to fast-track a controversial 250-foot arch near Arlington Memorial Cemetery, most recently rebranding it as a military complex — despite originally telling reporters it was intended to honor "me." "I have heard the president say: 'I am president because I am rich. I am rich because I am a developer.
I am a developer because I have exquisite taste,'" said Greg Werkheiser, whose law firm, Cultural Heritage Partners, is involved in several lawsuits against Trump's projects. "It would appear that much of his self-worth is tied to this mythology of Trump as a builder." White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told NPR in a statement that "President Trump can walk and chew gum at the same time," saying he is delivering on campaign policy promises while also "ensuring the People's House and our Nation's Capital will be properly glorified and remain in excellent condition for generations to come." "Thanks to the Builder-in-Chief, no other president has done more to beautify our Nation's interior than President Trump," he added. Trump's second-term projects have prompted lawsuits, protests and tens of thousands of public comments overwhelmingly in opposition.
While some of these undertakings are pegged to the country's 250th anniversary, critics have long accused the president of rushing to memorialize himself out of fear that no one else will. And Trump confirmed as much in a New York Magazine piece published earlier this month. "Nobody will do it once I'm gone," said the 80-year-old, second-term president.
"When I leave here, nobody will." Trump and those in his orbit maintain he is uniquely qualified to put his stamp on D.C. because of his decades-long career as a New York City real estate developer. Then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News last year that "in large part, he was re-elected ... because he is good at building things." But people who worked with him at the time point out that his early-career building projects and strategies were fraught too, boosted by financial workarounds and plagued by lawsuits. And, more broadly, historians and legal experts worry that Trump is setting a dangerous precedent by treating D.C. as his personal construction playground.
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