“President Trump loves the city,” a top ally in the construction endeavors said. “Washington is such a beautiful experiment, but it’s really incomplete.”Illustration by Max GutherDonald Trump, who initially made his name as a raffish real-estate fixture in New York, takes many hours away from his more conventional Presidential duties—waging war in Iran, levying tariffs on Canada—to remodel the White House and the capital itself in a mode reflective of his distinctive personality and tastes. He’s flown his “gold guy” from Florida to Washington to help with adornments in the Oval Office. He inspects marble samples. He envisions a triumphal arch that will, of course, be named in his honor. He has redone the bathroom for the Lincoln Bedroom; had the Rose Garden, curated by the Kennedys, turned into a Mar-a-Lago-style patio; had an asphalt driveway replaced with a granite one. And, last October, he abruptly ordered the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make way for a ballroom that seems to enter his headspace as much as any other subject. “He really cares about the renovations much more than anything in Presidential day-to-day life,” a person close to the Administration told the Washington-based New Yorker staff writer Antonia Hitchens.The Administration is spending more than nine hundred million dollars on White House renovations alone, with the American taxpayers footing most of that bill. And the President’s appetite for constant construction extends beyond the White House to encompass all of D.C. In this week’s issue, Hitchens goes behind the scenes to speak with the advisers and planners who are working around the clock to enable Trump to execute his vision. Her reporting reveals stunning details about the high-level government officials who are devoting their time and influence to enable what is, essentially, a portfolio of home-renovation and vanity projects.Meanwhile, the legal battles surrounding these projects continue. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled in Trump’s favor on the White House ballroom, allowing construction to continue. (Hitchens reports that two hundred and fifty workers are at the site, twenty hours a day, seven days a week.) Chief Justice John Roberts joined the Court’s liberals in dissenting, and seemed frustrated with Trump in his opinion, Ruth Marcus, a New Yorker legal contributor, writes in a piece today. As many an observer has noted, the President’s renovations can seem, at times, to be a physical representation of his tendency to wreak havoc—to tear down what came before him, and to replace it with whatever he prefers, often with impunity.Indeed, this week’s Court decision will likely have next to no effect on the ballroom’s construction. “In that sense,” Marcus writes, “the Court’s latest ruling is not strictly about the ballroom. It is, rather, about the judiciary’s willingness to stand up to a President who has repeatedly demonstrated his disrespect for the rule of law.” Sometimes that means circumventing Congress to launch a war. Other times it’s as simple as redecorating.The trial of Lindsay Clancy, who was accused of murdering her three young children, ended today in a mistrial. Eren Orbey details why neither the prosecution nor the defense succeeded in telling a tidy story about a horrific event:“It should come as no surprise that the jurors had trouble reaching unanimity. Five weeks of nationally televised testimony, from more than eighty witnesses, did not settle the central question: What was going through the defendant’s mind when she killed her kids?”Illustration by Josie NortonAbout one in six American children have some sort of mental-health diagnosis these days. In his latest column, Joshua Rothman explores this decline in happiness among the youth, finding that the problem goes beyond their smartphones. Read or listen to the story »“When you’re lucky enough to have lived a long life, as I have done, your role is to remind us how far we have come.” Read Gloria Steinem’s final essay.“By Any Means,” Elegance Bratton’s second feature, starring Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, is based on true, unspeakable events.Want to see a clone of a “tree” that went to the moon on Apollo 14?The most-clicked item in yesterday’s newsletter was Emily Witt’s authoritative account of what happened during the federal crackdown in Minneapolis.A book: “The Black Shield,” by Wilbert L. Cooper, is a nuanced chronicle of a Black police organization in Cleveland in the nineteen-forties that was focussed on “getting the same lack of accountability that White officers enjoyed.”A movie: In Na Hong-jin’s monster movie, “Hope,” violent small-town comedy and big-budget Hollywood imperialism collide.A play: “School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play” plops its audience into a tightly calibrated clique at a girls’ boarding school in Ghana. See what else our critics recommend this week.Today’s Crossword Puzzle: Accessory for a “Top Chef” or “Nailed It!” contestant—five letters. Catalogues: Can you sort the items into the correct order? Shuffalo: Can you make a longer word with each new letter? Laugh Lines: Test your knowledge of classic New Yorker cartoons.“Don’t forget your sunglasses, jacket, umbrella, fan, and galoshes—it’s going to be sunny, chilly, rainy, hot, and flooding later.”Cartoon by Jeremy NguyenP.S. A ninety-one-year-old man just became the oldest person to finish thru-hiking the roughly 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail. Someone should tell Dale (Grey Beard) Sanders that there are easier ways to do it. 🚗Hannah Jocelyn contributed to today’s edition.