Emergency services had to perform a “high-angle rescue” after a construction worker was injured at the site of one of Donald Trump’s multiple White House revamps.
The D.C. Fire and EMS Department dispatched officers on Monday to the North Portico. Workers have been removing scaffolding from the building’s iconic columned entrance, which Trump, 80, has had shrouded in drapes since restoration work began in June.
It is not clear what injury the man suffered, and the White House has not yet commented on the incident. Emergency personnel used a ladder to retrieve him, then a winch and stretcher to lower him into an ambulance, according to the Washington Post. They later took him to hospital, where he was treated for a “non-life-threatening injury.”
Work to remove the scaffolding around the North Portico comes as Trump prepares for an official visit from Chinese leader Xi Jinping, 73, later this month. It is one of a raft of construction projects Trump has launched at the White House and across the city. Each of those projects has trailed its own controversies, though this appears to be the first to involve an injury.
The president claimed his White House ballroom would cost just $200 million when he announced construction last July. He also said the money would come entirely from private donations. The total cost has since ballooned to more than $600 million, with $293 million from private sources and the remaining $307 million from taxpayer-funded federal accounts.
His plans for a 250-foot “triumphal arch” near Arlington National Cemetery, loosely modeled on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, have fared little better. Veterans of the Vietnam War have sued the administration because the structure threatens to interfere with views of the cemetery. A National Park Service assessment found it will adversely affect dozens of other historic sites, while the Federal Aviation Administration has not yet completed a full review of whether, at its proposed height, the arch could interfere with air traffic in the area.
Other projects, including a Trumpy revamp of the Kennedy Center, a proposed National Garden of American Heroes in West Potomac Park, and plans for a Marine One helipad on the White House South Lawn, have sparked backlash and concerns of their own.
None has done so more spectacularly than the president’s “American flag blue” refurbishment of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which has cost taxpayers $14.7 million and so far succeeded only in turning its waters a sickly green.
Trump has blamed vandals for the color change, caused by an algal bloom, while the Justice Department tried and failed to prosecute former Olympic canoeist David Hearn for allegedly damaging the pool’s lining. Prosecutors dropped the case after being forced to admit the damage resulted from a botched installation.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
