From Fox News · Landon Mion · · 1m 30s
Trump calls the White House a 'dump,' then renovates it
The president says he saved a crumbling building. Preservationists say he is tearing it apart.
In brief
The president says he saved a crumbling building. Preservationists say he is tearing it apart. Trump is reshaping the White House and much of official Washington on his own taste, and the legal fights are only starting. Originally reported by Fox News.
He called it a dump
In a Sunday Truth Social post, Trump said the White House was in very bad condition inside and out before his renovations, and blamed past presidents for letting it slide.
“The White House was in very bad condition, both inside and out. Frankly, it was a 'dump!'”
A hobby, he says
Trump framed the overhaul as something he does on the side, and credited the Interior Department and outside contractors with doing a fantastic job on the work.
“I love renovating it during my spare time, which is not much.”
Better than 1792
He claimed the building's exterior skin was practically falling off and that the structure is now in better shape than when it was first built, calling the job an honor.
“It is now in better shape than when built in 1792.”
Waiting would have destroyed it
Trump argued that leaving the White House unrenovated any longer would have wrecked it, casting the construction as a rescue rather than a remodel.
“destroyed our beloved White House!”
What actually changed
The North Portico entrance was fortified, gold ornamentation went into the Oval Office and Cabinet Room, the Rose Garden was paved over, and the East Wing came down for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom.
The city is next
Beyond the White House: the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a proposed repaint of the Eisenhower building, Kennedy Center work, a 250-foot arch near Arlington, and a National Garden of American Heroes.
At a glance
Trump is reshaping the White House and much of official Washington on his own taste, and the legal fights are only starting.
