President Donald Trump has made a stunning admission while revealing why he’s obsessed with remodeling Washington.
Trump, 80, has candidly told New York magazine that he is building monuments for himself and slapping his name everywhere because he knows that nobody else will do so when he is gone.
Reporter Ben Terris shared with Trump an attack line from Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, who says that Trump’s obsession with vanity projects stems from knowing he is the only person willing to memorialize him.
“That’s true,” Trump responded. “Nobody will do it once I’m gone. When I leave here, nobody will.”
That same report peeled back the curtain on Trump’s fixation with remodeling even as his approval rating craters to record lows, war with Iran has entered its sixth month, and gas and grocery prices remain higher than they were when he took office.
From the White House residence, the president can see the construction site of his new ballroom, which he tore down the entire East Wing for without permission. New York reports that he “often starts and ends his day by gazing out the window to check the progress.”
“He will call me at 9:30 at night and say, ‘I’m going to walk over and check the construction of the new ballroom,’” Eric Trump tells the magazine. Eric also said that his father is having “more fun building this ballroom than I can possibly tell you.”
Trump has also reportedly ordered a helicopter pilot to circle around Hains Point so he could see a golf course he’s planning to redevelop from a bird’s-eye view. These matters appear to be top of mind for Trump, who has brought up the topic of grass during 45 public events this term, or about once every 12 days, according to an Associated Press review last month.
The ballroom is just one of many Trump projects in MAGA 2.0.
At the White House alone, Trump has paved over Jackie Kennedy’s iconic Rose Garden to create a new patio; installed two massive flagpoles to tower over the executive residence; blingified the Oval Office to rival Saddam Hussein’s palaces; defaced the White House’s iconic colonnade by making it a Presidential Walk of Fame; and even built a granite helipad on the South Lawn.
Elsewhere in D.C., Trump has botched a Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation; shamelessly slapped his name on the Kennedy Center; and intends to build a 250-foot-tall “Arc de Trump.”
