Trump looks to leave mark on White House with $200M expansion and gilded touches

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, who built his wealth developing New York City skyscrapers bearing his name, is moving quickly in his second term to leave his permanent mark on the look and feel of the White House.

The manicured green lawn of the Rose Garden has been replaced with a stone-and-concrete patio, featuring white tables and bright yellow umbrellas that mirror the look of his Mar-a-Lago clubhouse in Florida.

Two 88-foot flag poles now tower over the White House from the north and south lawns after Trump oversaw their installation in June, and the Oval Office has been outfitted with gold-leaf trimmings and decorations that reflect the president’s longstanding penchant for gilded decor.

Trump's latest project — announced two weeks ago —  calls for a $200 million new addition to the White House that will house a ballroom with a seating capacity of 650 people. The president has argued the addition is needed because the East Room — the largest space in the White House — can only hold about 200 people. This has often led past presidents and first ladies to host state dinners in massive event tents temporarily set up on the South Lawn. 

While Trump has said the project will not cost taxpayers anything, and will instead be privately funded by himself and donors, government ethics experts have raised concerns that donors and corporations could use the effort as a way to gain influence with Trump.

“They’ve wanted a ballroom at the White House for more than 150 years, but there’s never been a president that was good at ballrooms,” Trump told reporters last month when announcing the ballroom plans. “I’m good at building things and we’re going to build quickly and on time. It’ll be beautiful, top, top of the line.”

White House makeovers

Trump is not the first president who has presided over major changes to the White House complex, and just like his predecessors he is facing criticism from detractors concerned about structural changes to the People’s House while receiving praise from supporters who contend upgrades are needed. The White House was built from 1792 to 1800 then rebuilt starting in 1817 after being burned down by the British during the War of 1812. It was later gut renovated over structural concerns during the Truman era.

“Nearly every president, some more than others, presides over changes in the White House, and so in that sense, it's like every person's house. What house that a person lives in is going to remain exactly the same from when they moved in?” said Barbara Perry, a presidential historian, and co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, in a phone interview. “Everybody's house changes, and the White House is no different from that. Styles change, needs change, perceptions change.”

President Harry Truman faced backlash when he oversaw a major gut renovation of the White House interior from 1948 to 1952 that involved reinforcing the more than century-old building at the time with steel beams and sturdier new basements, said Perry. He also added a balcony to the south side of the White House building, now referred to as the Truman Balcony, where presidents often address crowds that gather on the South Lawn for major events like the Easter Egg Roll or Fourth of July fireworks.

“The Truman Balcony was controversial during its time, but when you look at pictures of the White House without the Truman Balcony, they had awnings…that looked kind of pedestrian,” Perry said. “They were striped awnings like you see over someone’s patio. So tastes change, times change, infrastructure needs shoring up, and the Presidents have different versions of how they want the White House to operate and to be.”

President Theodore Roosevelt oversaw the creation of the West Wing, which houses the Oval Office, in 1902, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. presided over the creation of the East Wing during World War II to create more office space and a safety bunker. Those changes and others also faced criticism during their time, said White House Historical Association’s president Stewart McLaurin, in a statement provided to Newsday by the nonprofit that works to preserve the historical authenticity of the site.

“The White House has been shaped by the visions and priorities of its occupants, from Jefferson’s colonnades to Truman’s monumental gutting,” McLaurin said. “Each change, whether Jackson’s North Portico, Arthur’s opulent redecoration, or Clinton’s security measures— has sparked debate, reflecting tensions between preservation and modernization, aesthetics and functionality, and openness and security. Media and Congressional criticisms have often focused on costs, historical integrity, and timing, yet many of these alterations have become integral to the identity of the White House, and it is difficult for us to imagine The White House today without these evolutions and additions.”

Government need?

Critics of Trump’s plans to add a new ballroom to the White House contend the $200 million project comes as the Trump administration has laid off federal workers and shuttered government agencies.

“This is what DOGE was all about, folks, cutting things from you, and giving it not to some place that needed it, giving it to the big shots who run the show, Donald Trump at the top of the list,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a social media post, referring to Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has led the push to slash the federal workforce.

Trump has said the ballroom project will be privately funded by himself and through donations, but he has not indicated how much of the project he will fund and the White House has said donors can choose to remain private, raising concerns from government ethics experts that donors will use the opportunity to curry favor with the current administration.

“People who want to be in good with the president are going to write checks,” said Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics counsel under President George W. Bush, in a social media post linking to a New York Times interview. “It’s just a whole extension of the pay-to-play problem that we’ve had in government for years.”

Work on the ballroom is set to begin in September, and is expected to be completed by 2029 before Trump leaves office, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a July 31 briefing to unveil renderings of the proposed new 90,000-square-foot structure.

Trump has tapped McCrery Architects to lead the effort, and the White House has said the National Park Service, U.S. Secret Service and White House Military Office are all involved in the process to ensure the structure keeps with the “classical architectural design” of the White House.

This past Monday, Trump walked along the roof of the West Wing joined by architect James McCrery and Secret Service agents and aides, appearing to survey the grounds of the White House complex. Trump dismissed questions shouted by reporters about whether he was planning to add more rooms to the White House residence or the West Wing, but when further pressed by a reporter on what he planned to build, Trump jokingly replied, “Nuclear missiles.”

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.