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President Donald Trump installed two massive 88-foot-tall American flags on either side of the White House this summer in a patriotic endeavor that did not cost U.S. taxpayers a cent.
“President Trump personally paid to install two big, beautiful American Flags to wave proudly over the White House for years to come. This is just one of many projects President Trump selflessly paid for to make the White House even more patriotic and beautiful,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Fox News Digital on Thursday.
The flagpoles were estimated to cost $50,000 each.
An American flag has flown on the White House roof stretching back decades, with Trump first announcing in April that he planned to install additional flags on the North and South lawns.
“They needed flagpoles for 200 years,” Trump told the media back in April when he first announced plans for the flag installations. “It was something I’ve often said, you know, they don’t have a flagpole per se. So we’re putting one right where you saw us, and we’re putting another one on the other side, on top of the mounds. It’s going to be two beautiful poles.”
“Paid for by Trump,” he added.
The flagpoles were installed last month ahead of the 4th of July holiday and now frame the White House on either lawn.
Trump held a flag-raising ceremony on June 18, when he remarked that these are the “best poles anywhere in the country or in the world,” while reveling in the manual installation of the poles.
“Only if you’re in construction is this exciting,” Trump said during the ceremony last month. “See, you have to get it perfectly straight and once it’s perfect, they pour in the sand, and it’s there for 100 years.”
The installation of the flag poles is Trump’s latest revamp to the White House under his second administration. The White House Rose Garden, for example, is currently under construction after Trump announced in March that he planned to renovate the historic garden with pavers, citing the grass “doesn’t work,” citing how the soft grass terrain was difficult for some visitors, notably women in high-heels, to navigate.
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