President Donald Trump had a walkway on the West Wing’s colonnade hurriedly redone so it would be ready for King Charles III and Queen Camilla to walk down it during their state visit Monday.
The 79-year-old president was eager to show off the renovations taking place outside the Oval Office during a press conference on Thursday, when he boasted of the new “charcoal” path.
Trump picked out the granite slabs himself as part of a project that started last month and was pushed through to be ready in time for the royals, according to The Washington Post. The granite replaces beige Tennessee flagstone that had previously formed the path.
“If you look outside, so we had flooring outside, we had slate, and it’s coming to pieces. It’s been there since the early 1940s and it’s a path to the Oval Office, it’s a path to the West Wing, it was terrible,” Trump said, unprompted in the middle of a drug pricing announcement.
“We’re putting magnificent new granite, it’s called charcoal. It’s black granite against the white, beautiful white walls. We’ve stripped all the paints off, it had 200 years of paint and we’ve redone it and it’s beautiful and you can see the building but you can also see the columns and everything else but we’re replacing—they’re working right outside," Trump said.
The granite, Trump said, was African, but carved in Italy before being shipped to the United States.
When he was later asked about the state visit, Trump was quick to boast of his “friendship” with the King.
“We’re having King Charles come, he’s a friend of mine, we’re really looking forward to it, we’ve spoken, we’re going to have a great time,” he said.
Then he shifted back to his pet topic, renovations, lamenting that his controversial and legally-stalled ballroom was not yet built to host the king.
“I tell you, if I had that ballroom built it would be full—I wish we had more seats.
“They wanted a new ballroom for 150 years and now they’re getting the best in the world, we’re gonna have the best in the world. You know we have a little, a room that’s not big enough to handle what would be a big crowd, but we’re going to have great people that love the UK, I love the UK,” he declared.
Trump has also reportedly sought to have construction work on Lafayette Park wrapped up and the park opened in time for the royal visit. FOX Business correspondent Edward Lawrence cited sources who said Trump had taken a “personal interest” in the park being open, though construction crews are still busy with work inside it, restoring the fountains and cleaning statues.
