It’s been many years since President Donald Trump flew commercial. But on Wednesday, he unveiled major renovations to a key Washington-area airport — his latest effort to shape infrastructure around the nation’s capital.
Trump oversaw proposals for a massive, $22.5 billion project at Dulles International Airport, the Northern Virginia air travel hub with direct flights to more than 50 countries.
“This is very exciting to me as a builder — somebody that builds lots of big, nice projects before I got here, and we’re doing some of the best in the world right now,” Trump said in the Oval Office Wednesday, seated before a large model of the newly imagined airport that covered his desk. He gestured enthusiastically at renderings of the plans that sources say he personally reviewed and approved, using a laser pointer to highlight new parking areas closer to the main terminal.
Throughout his second term, the president has often used the Oval Office to debut proposals for building and repairing — not just at the White House, but across the city and surrounding region.
He’s tried to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, build a new triumphal arch and National Garden of American Heroes, restore fountains across town and slapped his name — with limited enduring success — on prominent institutions. And while some of those projects may be more popular than others among DC residents, a 58% majority of Americans say they feel dissatisfied or angry about his construction projects in DC, according to a new CNN poll released Wednesday.
