It turns out there was another reason President Trump was memorably “taking a little walk” along the White House roof in August: “I was looking at doing office space.”
After tearing down the East Wing of the White House to build a lavish new ballroom, Mr. Trump is turning his sights to a more famous section of the White House. He wants to build a second level on top of the colonnade that connects the West Wing to the White House residence.
In an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump said that he was calling the project the “Upper West Wing.” He said that it was currently under design and that if he liked what he saw, he would move forward. He said that West Wing aides could have additional office space there, or that it could be “first ladies’ offices for future first ladies.”
Later, during a tour of the White House residence, he said he planned to tear up the brick walkways in Lafayette Park and replace them with granite.
“I’m spending my own money and I’m going to redo it,” Mr. Trump said of the park. He estimated the cost would be about $10 million. “I pay everything,” he said when asked whether taxpayers or donors would foot the bill.
Mr. Trump said his decision to tear up the park walkways, in part, was because protesters could pluck bricks from the walkway and throw them.
During a nearly two-hour interview, Mr. Trump described not only his plans for a large ballroom that has more than doubled in size since it was first proposed, but also his ideas for more building projects. Those include the renovations of the West Wing and Lafayette Park, as well as Washington Dulles International Airport, and the construction of a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery and a national garden of American heroes on the Potomac River.
“Yes, I’m going to make Dulles into a great airport” he said.
Some of Mr. Trump’s construction intentions came into clearer focus on Thursday during a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, in which Shalom Baranes, the architect on the ballroom project, presented preliminary plans.
Mr. Baranes displayed renderings of a ballroom that was equal in height to the White House’s Executive Mansion, raising some concerns among commission members about the size of the project.
Mr. Baranes said a possible addition to the West Wing would be limited to “just the colonnade.” He said such an addition could be needed to match the height of the ballroom project.
“I did mention the potential for a future addition, a one-story addition to the West Wing,” Mr. Baranes told the commission, adding: “The reason to think about that is so that we would reinstate symmetry along the central pavilion of the White House.”
Several members of the National Capital Planning Commission said on Thursday that they had questions about the size of the ballroom, which critics have said could dwarf the existing White House. Protesters of the ballroom proposal gathered outside the meeting.
But Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House Office of Administration, maintained that the project was sorely needed, and said the complete demolition of the East Wing was the best option available to Mr. Trump.
“Modifying and or renovating the colonnade in the existing East Wing was not feasible for many reasons,” Mr. Fisher said, citing instability in its colonnade, mold and outdated electrical infrastructure.
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During the interview with The Times, Mr. Trump said one main point of constructing a new ballroom was to have a secure site to hold an inauguration. He said it would have bulletproof glass, 4 to 5 inches thick, that “can take just about any weapon that we know of.”
The president made clear that assassination attempts against him were on his mind.
“It’s not like it was 30 years ago,” he said. “You’ve got to make a speech today. They got the long ranges. They can go 10 football fields. OK?” He added: “It’s being designed very much with the inauguration in mind. It’ll be able to hold six times what the Capitol can hold, and it’s all bulletproof glass, drone-proof roof, yeah, serious. The biggest drone could crash into it — you’d hear a noise up there. It wouldn’t be bad.”
The renovations will include the secure area below the East Wing known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center.
“So, I started off with a building, half of the seats, then it just kept growing and growing, and the money kept pouring in and pouring in,” Mr. Trump said of how the project has grown. “I said, ‘Well we’ve got all this beautiful land. I don’t want to waste it.’ So I said, ‘All right, I’ll go a little bit larger”
The president said the White House ballroom depicted in early renderings would have held only 450 people.
“So then I said: ‘Well, OK, let’s max it out. This is more like Trump, isn’t it? Let’s max it out.’”
Even so, Mr. Trump said he rejected one model that was even bigger than his current plan. “I would have the right to do that,” he said. “But I thought it was too big and it wasn’t right for the site.”
Mr. Baranes said the final drawings would plan for about 1,000 seated guests.
The project’s price tag has also grown. Mr. Trump initially said it would cost $200 million to build, before raising the figure to $300 million and then $400 million.
As for the planned National Garden of American Heroes, a sculpture garden that Mr. Trump proposed during his first term and that Congress allocated $40 million for in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, Mr. Trump said he was eyeing a spot on the Potomac River.
“That’s going to be most likely right on the Potomac River,” he said. “You’ll see this, an area that is touching the golf course.” He added, “That hasn’t been a final decision, but it’s getting close.”
The president said the proposed spot for the garden was one of the reasons his administration moved to seize control of the municipal golf courses in Washington. Last month, the Department of Interior terminated a lease with National Links Trust to rehabilitate three public golf courses, including East Potomac Golf Links.
“Going to be a beautiful complex,” he said.
Mr. Trump also made clear that he was immensely proud of a renovation of the bathroom connected to the Lincoln Bedroom.
“You know the Lincoln bathroom, as an example — people, ‘Oh Lincoln’ — it’s a masterpiece,” he said, adding: “I made it into what would have been used at the highest level, the most gorgeous marble.”
Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
The post The Next Phase of Trump’s Renovations: A New ‘Upper West Wing’ appeared first on New York Times.
