By
Margaret Hartmann,
senior editor for Intelligencer who has worked at New York since 2012
White House helipad construction continues on July 14, 2026.
Obviously, constructing a 92-foot-tall, 600-ton UFC arena for the president’s 80th-birthday bash completely destroyed the South Lawn. Donald Trump said this would be resolved one of two ways. Either the Ultimate Fighting Championship would pay $700,000 to restore the lawn or “the Cage” would stay up forever, like Trump’s version of the Eiffel Tower.
