President Donald Trump reportedly became so irritated by the appearance of his planned White House heli-pad that he demanded a do-over.
After working round the clock on another one of the president’s vanity projects, Trump has ordered the whole thing to be scrapped and redone, the Washington Post reported. Photos captured by the Post show construction workers undoing weeks of work, including a 100-foot-wide granite presidential seal.
Trump had ordered that work on the helipad be completed by September on the White House South Lawn, but has been dissatisfied with the results, sources told the Post.
He is also reportedly unhappy that the helipad sits on a slant, and wants it to sit level with the horizon. Contractors are now contemplating whether the project will require the actual lawn to be changed as well.
Marine One, the call sign for the helicopter carrying the president, currently lands on the South Portico, on the White House’s South Lawn, where it has landed for decades.
The Trump-ordered helipad project is expected to cost more than $5 million, but it remains unclear how the now-scrapped work will add to the cost.
The White House did not provide the Daily Beast with a direct comment regarding the costs of the project. White House spokesperson Davis Ingle instead provided a recycled statement asserting that the White House has “desperately needed a proper Helipad” and that “thanks to President Trump, the White House has never looked better, and it will only continue to get better under his leadership.”
Trump has heavily prioritized what he calls “beautification” projects across Washington, D.C. in his second term.
About 70 percent of Trump’s mind is consumed by his various vanity projects across Washington, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman and author of the bombshell book Regime Change recently assessed.
The helipad construction only adds to the construction eyesore that is the White House grounds. The Trump White House tore down the East Wing last year, leaving behind a large hole as the administration attempts to build a ballroom.
A federal judge has halted construction of the president’s ballroom, citing the need for congressional approval. The ballroom’s price has ballooned from Trump’s original $200 million to $400 million, and some Congressional Republicans even floated $1 billion in federal funding for “security adjustments and upgrades” at the White House and ballroom site
The president has also been focused on a “triumphal” arch, mirroring the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, at the end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Virginia. That project, which has yet to get off the ground, is estimated to cost around $100 million.
But the president has been most enraged by his disastrous $17 million Reflecting Pool “renovations.” Just after contractors painted the bottom of the pool “American flag blue,” paint chips began floating to the surface, and the water turned green with algae.
Trump has blamed nonexistent nefarious actors on the botched job, claiming they committed “very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments,” and will spend “years in jail!”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has dropped charges against the nonexistent vandals this week, assessing that the problems stemmed from the botched construction job and were not an act of sabotage as it had claimed.
