The White House North Portico is covered with significant scaffolding, now covered by a drape, that’s gone up in recent days as workers rehabilitate the exterior columns at President Donald Trump’s request.
The column updates mark the latest effort in a spate of construction projects the president, a former real estate developer, has undertaken both at the White House and across Washington, DC.
Trump spent roughly six minutes inspecting the columns as his motorcade returned from Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day. On June 9, workers were observed beginning to strip paint from the Ionic columns and the plaster. On June 29, a worker in a lift removed the massive lantern centered under the White House overhang and put its pieces into a box.
This week, reporters did live TV hits in front of a White House now fully encrusted in scaffolding, with loud bangs emanating from the ongoing work.
By Thursday afternoon, workers placed a new drape over the scaffolding with a printed image of the columns. A White House official attributed the project to “standard restoration work” and “stone repair in the columns.”
