President Donald Trump unveiled a new White House construction project Wednesday, issuing an impromptu invitation to reporters to join him on the South Lawn and tour the replacement of the White House driveway as well as progress made on his new helipad.
During the tour, an animated Trump highlighted his personal investment in the projects with painstaking attention to details theoretically far below his pay grade: the placement of stanchions, the radial cut of granite, the elimination of potholes. The tour concluded with him signing a giant slab of granite that he said would be “flipped” and laid into the helipad.
But first, he detailed another project — previously unannounced — that was already finished.
“This was always asphalt, which is very basic, not appropriate for a great house — for a great place like the White House,” Trump said over the clanging noise of construction, gesturing at the surface he was walking on. The driveway has been redone, he added, with a California-mined white granite he described as a “very special stone.”
Trump also suggested he had been involved in the decision earlier this month to disassemble progress made on his helipad.
