President Donald Trump is ignoring Congress, zoning laws and airspace regulations as he pours granite over a White House lawn to build himself a helipad, the New York Times reported Thursday morning.
The unusually speedy work on the black-granite helipad is going down on the South Lawn where children traditionally gather for the White House Easter Egg Roll in the spring, the Times reported.
“Such projects usually require a developer to navigate a complex web of zoning laws, airspace regulations and environmental impact studies, while negotiating with town councils and fighting off community pushback,” the Times reported.
“But Mr. Trump has encountered no such difficulties as he quickly proceeds with construction of a black granite helipad on the South Lawn. He has not asked Congress or any review panel, such as the Commission of Fine Arts, to approve the project.”
Trump has shrugged off the traditional step of engaging Congress as he did with his 90,000-square-foot ballroom — now facing a slew of legal challenges, the Times reported.
A White House spokesman told the New York Times in an email that “operational upgrades to the White House grounds, such as the helipad installation, do not require commission reviews.”
Last month, reports revealed Trump’s claim that wealthy donors would fund his ballroom wasn’t as simple as it sounded.
“Trump has been lying the whole time with full knowledge of the cost and the cost to taxpayers,” political analyst Brian Tyler Cohen said at the time.
This comment was in response to a Washington Post report that found taxpayers would pay for about half of the $600 million construction project.
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