Don the Builder: Inside Trump's White House makeover

Donald Trump is obsessing over remodeling the White House like no other president.He has gilded the Oval Office, replaced trees, paved the Rose Garden lawn, hung art and mirrors all over, erected flagpoles and begun work on a $250 million ballroom.He's not done: Trump has had models and dioramas built for other projects he's considering, and even directed how and where new marble-tiled floors are laid.Why it matters: Long after Trump has exited the presidency, his imprint will be on the executive mansion in an unprecedented scope and scale — even if a successor removes the Oval Office gold leaf.He's spent as many as 20 hours on some projects, aides say, engaging in impromptu design sessions between negotiating peace deals and talks over the government shutdown.After strong-arming Benjamin Netanyahu into a Gaza ceasefire two weeks ago, Trump led the Israeli prime minister on a 40-minute tour of White House renovations. Last week, Finland Prime Minister Alexander Stubb got the same treatment.Zoom in: Last month, a delegation of Florida House lawmakers spent even more time with the president — well over an hour — as he showed them the new tile floors in the old washroom of the Lincoln Bedroom (statuary marble Trump had selected).Trump led the guests outside to the new Rose Garden patio, and had them vote on new outdoor tiles. "He asked me to pick a tile," said one Floridian, declining to say how he voted."He asks everyone for a vote on everything," an adviser said. "We vote. Anybody that walks through gets a vote. He cares so deeply about perfection that this is what he does."As the new Rose Garden patio was coming together, Trump interrupted an Oval Office meeting with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to show off the new outdoor Bang & Olufsen sound system being installed (same brand as at Mar-a-Lago)."We have a great speaker system," Trump, microphone in hand, boasted on Sept. 5 when he inaugurated the new "Rose Garden Club." The guest list consisted of trusted Cabinet secretaries and advisers, and lawmakers who are reliable votes for his plans."You are the ones that I never had to call at 4 o'clock in the morning," he said.What they're saying: The ongoing makeover is too garish for catty commenters on Reddit, and way too golden for The New York Times (which called it "A Gilded Rococo Nightmare"). Trump's team, officially, doesn't care."He's stamping his legacy on the presidency and on the White House forever," one senior adviser said. "No one can get rid of the ballroom. It will be difficult to take all of the gold away. Who would even do that?""President [George W.] Bush liked to paint. Trump likes to build and design. This is his artistic outlet," a White House aide said, describing the "perfectionist" tendencies of the Luxury Resort Owner-in-Chief.Experts have raised concerns about historic preservation and architectural integrity, but White House Chief of Staff Wiles said in a news release the administration is "fully committed to working with the appropriate organizations to preserving the special history of the White House."What's next: The president's wandering architectural eye is now gazing southwest from the White House to land around the Memorial Bridge. He wants to erect a giant arch as a grand entrance into Washington from Arlington National Cemetery."Let's build something like the Arc de Triomphe in that space, it would be beautiful when you drive or fly in," Trump told a White House visitor a few weeks ago.Trump has three differently sized models of the "Arc de Trump" that he's been positioning on a map of D.C. to determine the right scale.On Saturday, Trump posted on Truth Social a rendition of the arch by Washington architect Nicolas Leo Charbonneau.The models for the arch were 3-D printed on Trump's orders by the architects involved in designing the new ballroom. He says it'd be privately funded, along with some of the other projects. The total cost is unclear.Trump also 3-D printed models of the ballroom on a diorama of the White House grounds that he fidgets with in the dining room during meals."The tenser things are, the more he moves the [diorama] pieces around in his spare time, or he takes a break and thinks about the marble he wants or the columns, whether they're going to be Corinthian or not," a White House official said.Asked if Trump liked Doric or Ionic columns, the official said, "He's more of a Corinthian man."Another aide said Trump "worked every single detail you can think of ... from where the bathrooms and plumbing are, to how many people will be able to sit in the ballroom, what material to use for the floor and the walls. How big the windows will be. He is literally the project manager."Elsewhere in and around the White House, Trump's changes have included:Trees on the South Lawn: He hated the look of some of the newer oaks, birch and maples and began replacing them with trees that have broader canopies and that, to him, are more aesthetically pleasing.The Palm Room: Late last month, Trump redid the hall connecting the front of the White House to the Rose Garden and West Colonnade by ripping up the tiles and replacing them with statuary marble. He insisted on "bookmatching" the new tiles so that the marble veins line up and make the floor appear as if it's one giant slab. He replaced the overhead lights with two Schonbeck chandeliers.Along the Colonnade, portraits of every president, selected by Trump, are now hung in golden frames (of course) made of a composite to withstand the exterior conditions, as are the acrylic portraits.Trump trolled his predecessor, Joe Biden, by hanging a mock portrait of an autopen instead of Biden himself.Aides say Trump will probably replace it with an actual likeness of Biden eventually, but make no predictions."This is all the president's baby," one of the advisers said. "It's the Trump White House."