The president’s latest construction project involves changing the lawn’s slope to bring it flush with his new helipad.
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President Donald Trump has begun a larger project to redo the White House’s lawn, seeking to bring its slope flush with his new helipad.
Construction crews, which have been working round-the-clock to complete the helipad project before Chinese President Xi Jingping’s planned state visit next month, have torn up much of the White House’s South Lawn and are working to raise its level, according to photographs of the site and two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe planned construction.
A White House official said Monday afternoon that the helipad project would involve adjusting the slope of the lawn around the site.
“The lawn will gently be reshaped to meet the new helipad,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe in-progress construction.
Trump’s work on the helipad, the lawn and the ballroom are part of his broader effort to remake the physical grounds of the White House in his second term — a project that involves at least $900 million in new spending, The Washington Post reported.
The helipad project, which also includes changes to the White House driveway and South Portico, was set to cost $13 million, according to a contractor’s records obtained by The Post.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about whether Trump’s efforts to change the slope of the White House’s South Lawn would add any additional cost or time to the helipad project.
The Post reported earlier this month that Trump had ordered contractors to redo weeks of work on the helipad because the president was unhappy with the helipad’s slope. Trump expressed a desire for a landing pad that sits level with the horizon, compared to the slightly sloped helipad that was taking shape. Workers subsequently redid the project, winning Trump’s public praise.
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“We had a lot of slope on it, and I felt it was too much slope,” Trump told reporters last week, when he gave them a tour of the project. He later told construction workers that the decision to lift up the helipad’s slope “was one of the best things we’ve ever done.”
He also discussed his efforts to address damage to the White House lawn stemming from the Ultimate Fighting Championship match he hosted earlier this summer, thanking ScottsMiracle-Gro for making a donation of new sod and pointing out fresh topsoil.
Trump also had been considering an effort to regrade the White House’s South Lawn and raise its slope, The Post reported. The lawn, which has been used for decades by helicopters that transport the president, slopes downward, away from the White House.
Trump ordered the construction of the helipad to accommodate the next generation of Marine One helicopters, which run the risk of burning the White House grass. Trump has said he is hoping to use the 100-foot-wide, granite helipad, which is emblazoned with a presidential seal, to also host events in conjunction with his planned White House ballroom.
“They can have cocktails and everything outside of the White House, and then they go into the ballroom,” Trump said last week.
The president on Monday afternoon invited White House guests on another tour of the helipad project as he wrapped up remarks on education policy in the Rose Garden.
“When I hear all that banging out there, some people say, ‘Oh, that’s too bad,’” Trump said. ”And I say, ‘I love it.’”
