President Donald Trump had just finished showing off renderings for June’s White House UFC fight when his focus shifted to another set of designs.
As he left the Oval Office earlier this month, he could be heard peppering an associate about his biggest construction obsession: His East Wing ballroom. He claimed portions were missing from the latest renderings and asked for clarity on its many columns.
The brief interaction in the halls of the West Wing — which came on the same day the US was trading proposals on an elusive end to the war with Iran — showed how intimately involved the president is with every detail of his signature project, and how much of his time it’s consuming.
Trump’s predecessors have sought creative ways to protect their valuable time: cutting down on decision-making, limiting staff walk-in access to the Oval Office and replacing meetings with to-the-point memos.
But that’s not Trump’s approach when it comes to design and construction — from updates to the West Wing to the 90,000-square-foot new East Wing to projects across Washington, DC, for which he comes to meetings prepared with swatches and feedback on finishes and scale.
