The nation’s capital is getting a case of Mar-a-Lago face.
May 18, 20265:40 AM
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by J. David Ake/Getty Images and Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images.
Under Donald Trump, the nation’s capital is getting a face-lift. The president has torn down the White House’s decades-old East Wing to make room for a massive ballroom that could end up costing taxpayers $1 billion or more. He ordered the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to be painted blue. He covered the Oval Office with golden tchotchkes, redid the Lincoln bathroom in marble, paved the Kennedy-era Rose Garden into a patio, and resurfaced a White House walkway with black granite sourced from Africa and carved in Italy (so much for America First). In some cases, the attempts to remake the city in Trump’s image have been literal; the neoclassical facades of the Justice Department and other federal buildings now feature giant banners of the president’s scowling visage.
He isn’t done either. Trump also wants to build a triumphal arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery that would dwarf similar monuments in Paris and Rome. He has pledged to redevelop a swath of the National Mall into a “National Garden of American Heroes” that could reportedly feature dining facilities, an amphitheater, and hundreds of statues of famous Americans. On Thursday, his administration unveiled plans to transform one of the capital’s unassuming municipal golf courses into a luxe, 18-hole expanse that could someday host major tournaments.
