President Donald Trump has ordered further work on the South Lawn of the White House where his new helipad is being built, calling for the garden’s entire slope to be leveled out, according to a report. Construction crews have been seen in recent days tearing up huge portions of earth in order to bring the lawn flush with the helipad, a task Trump has demanded be finished in time for Chinese Premier Xi Jinping’s arrival on September 24. The president first announced the helipad’s construction in early July, explaining that a new fleet of Sikorsky Aircraft helicopters delivered to the White House in 2024 had encountered a problem: their exhaust vents aim heat downwards when they land and take off, burning the grass.
Trump has continued to use the previous Marine One fleet instead of the new VH‑92A Patriot models and said that Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, is paying the $6 million cost of the helipad because, he said, they “felt a little bit guilty” about the issue created. The president had to wait until his birthday UFC bout on June 14 had been completed before the project could commence but personally chose the white granite being used, hailing it as “the strongest stone.” However, within a month the work completed was already having to be redone – including the dismantling of a 100-foot-wide presidential seal – after Trump complained that the sloping lawn meant the helipad would not be sitting level with the horizon. I love seeing things properly taken care of.” He also addressed his dissatisfaction with the lawn.
He added the helipad would be “much better for state arrivals” and suggested: “ They can have events on it. They can have people go there for cocktails and then walk to the ballroom.” Trump was back at the site Monday with a group of children taking part in a “back to school” event, insisting: “Kids love construction.” The project is just one of numerous embellishments the president has made to the White House and the surrounding area in Washington, D.C., since returning to power last year. The most prominent remains the massive $600m ballroom he hopes to erect in place of the demolished East Wing, which has been the subject of a prolonged legal battle.
Its fate currently rests with the Supreme Court. Other signature Trump enterprises include paving over the Rose Garden to turn it into a Florida patio, adding new plaques and signage across 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and, most disastrously, making over the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool in “American Flag Blue.” All together, the cost of the president’s projects has been pegged at $927 million so far. New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman estimated in her recent book Regime Change, co-written with colleague Jonathan Swan, that Trump devotes around 70 percent of his focus to his “beautifying” agenda, leaving only 30 percent for such pressing concerns as the Iran war, the domestic economy and November’s midterm elections.
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