It’s a trope of home makeover shows: an unhappy homeowner looks around and wants to make some changes. Designers and contractors swoop in to try to fulfill their dreams as the clock ticks. And then, complications ensue.
Such is the scene in Washington in the age of Donald Trump, the builder president who has seemingly decided to overhaul not just his home — the White House — but the entire city around him, using the nation’s capital as a canvas for his own particular brand of reality TV-inflected renovations.
After generations of slow and often staid improvements, Trump has already added a splashy, outsized flair to today’s Washington: country club umbrellas in the paved over Rose Garden, for example, and a temporary but massive Ultimate Fighting Championship octagon cage on the South Lawn, primed for a fight to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday.
Such changes are reflective of his personal and political tastes. At the same time, however, the president’s makeovers have also followed a tried-and-true story line native to HGTV and other fix-it-up shows, according to veterans and students of that form.
“It’s a very clean narrative: Dissatisfied homeowners come in, then there’s a fixer, and then things get better,” said Eunji Kim, the author of “The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy,” adding that Trump “knows the formula” after years of hosting “The Apprentice.”
And with HGTV ranking as one of the nation’s most popular television channels, “he knows that Americans are very familiar with it, too,” Kim said.
While the dramatic reveal of the finished product is also a staple of the format, only a few of the president’s second-term projects are complete, and many have faced bad press and legal challenges. That includes the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which the president has had repainted “American flag blue,” and his massive new $400 million ballroom on the site of the demolished East Wing.
Work there and elsewhere have been criticized by historians and questioned by federal judges, but such obstacles haven’t dampened the president’s enthusiasm. He is continuing to roll out plans for such projects as a 250-foot arch, recently approved by his handpicked Commission of Fine Arts; a so-called Garden of Heroes, complete with 250 life-size statues of famous Americans ranging from Sacagawea to Alex Trebek; and a planned makeover of the Kennedy Center, to which Trump already affixed his name. (Late last month, a federal judge ordered the president’s name removed, and temporarily blocked the plan to close the building for renovations.)
“I’m a really good builder,” the president recently said, giving a tour of his ballroom’s progress, adding, “I want to see Washington be beautiful.”
But Brian Balthazar, a veteran television producer and a former executive at HGTV, said some of Trump’s plans could be seen as falling into a classic trap for many new homeowners: gutting things that may not need it.
“Often the question is: ‘Wow, is this renovation even necessary?’” he said. “And quite often the answer is no.”
Balthazar said he also recognized another renovation pitfall in the president’s makeover binge: the homeowner who insists they know best. Often the designer will explain to a client why something won’t work — perhaps what they want is disproportionate, for example.
“Frankly, a lot of time homeowners will try and override the designer and win,” said Balthazar. “And that very well may be playing out on a national stage.”
Trump did, in fact, replace the original architect of the ballroom after they had multiple disagreements over issues like the ballroom’s size, which already dwarfs other parts of the White House. And like many reality shows, the scope — and price — of many of the capital’s projects have grown, as have questions about the funding of some of his beautification efforts.
Recent investigations by The New York Times have shown that at least $67 million worth of national park entrance fees have been used, including at least $7 million for the reflecting pool, a no-bid contract that has an excessive profit margin for its contractor.
Money plays a large role in many design shows or “flipping” shows, where property resale is the goal. In Trump’s case, money has also become an issue, including for some fellow Republicans, who backed away from a proposal to set aside $1 billion for ballroom construction, seemingly recognizing that it threatened to become a political albatross. Polls show that both the ballroom and the triumphal arch are unpopular with voters.
The White House defended the president’s efforts.
“After decades of neglect, we finally have a president who is using his world-class business experience to beautify the crown jewels of our nation’s capital,” said Taylor Rogers, a spokesman for the president. “President Trump is delivering on his campaign promise to restore the capital city of the greatest country in the history of the world to its proper glory!”
Some of the president’s improvements have been hailed by locals, including the restoration of fountains around the city, including in Meridian Hill Park, north of the White House, a project which has even drawn praise from some Democrats.
Signs reading “We are Making D.C. Safe & Beautiful” dot the city’s center, as cranes have loomed over the White House and the adjacent Lafayette Park, which had been fenced off as part of a “major rehabilitation.” Nearby, other chunks of parkland have been cordoned for parked construction equipment and supplies, including the tubs of blue paint used on the reflecting pool, a plan — and color — which alarmed some preservationists.
“A reflecting pool is not a swimming pool,” said Dr. Judy Scott Feldman, an art historian and the chair of National Mall Coalition, an all-volunteer nonprofit.
Those aren’t the only concerns. Indeed, Danielle Lindemann, a professor of sociology at Lehigh University and the author of “True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us,” said that legal challenges faced by Trump — including at the Kennedy Center — could also be seen as the sort of “narrative roadblocks” often used in reality TV. (“The contractors are late! The tile isn’t in stock!”)
“I don’t think it’s by design, necessarily — as in, I don’t think Trump is the architect of this narrative — but we do see those roadblocks in the form of legal constraints with the courts,” she said.
Then, too, there are the time — and, in some cases, term — constraints, with workers scrambling to complete the reflecting pool in time for the nation’s 250th birthday on July 4, all while dealing with scalding heat and stormy weather. On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that crews might be working 20 hours a day on the arch, too.
As for the ballroom, the president said its grand opening will be “around September of 2028,” just two months before the next presidential election. That year is also the target for the possible rebuilding and reopening of the Kennedy Center, which had been buffeted by artist cancellations and declining attendance after Trump overhauled its leadership — and name.
As any veterans of renovations can tell you, however, deadlines are often made to be broken.
“The truth is, you’re at the mercy of how fast the paint dries, how fast the mud dries,” said Katie Ruttan-Daigle, a renovation show producer and former HGTV executive, adding, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re doing. You’re facing the same thing because you’re run by the human engine.”
Major renovations also sometimes face the cold reality that work done fast may not always be work done well, with multiple cases of home makeover shows being sued for shoddy work.
“They’re under this time crunch, right? And so they’re doing it in a way, they’re cutting corners, they’re maybe not relying on the most credentialed experts, the best materials,” Lindemann noted. “And so then the crew leaves and like half the kitchen island falls down.”
As for the psychology of why people renovate, both on TV and down the block, experts say that it often has much to do with keeping up with the times — and the neighbors. In a recent Truth Social post about the ballroom, for example, Trump noted that “China has a Ballroom, and so should the U.S.A.!”
Sure enough, several other administrations have also grappled with the White House’s need for more room for large events, noting that some state dinners have had to use tents to house all the guests.
Remaining au courant, of course, might be a bigger challenge.
“Ask anyone who’s ever gotten a new kitchen,” Balthazar said. “By the time it’s done, it is almost time for a new one.”
Georgia Gee contributed research.
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