President Donald Trump has leaned hard into his real estate roots since returning to the White House, fashioning himself as Washington, DC’s developer-in-chief as he’s unilaterally launched an ambitious slate of construction, renovation and restoration projects across the nation’s capital.
From his now $1.4 billion White House ballroom (preceded by his decision to demolish the entire East Wing to help necessitate it) and 250-foot-tall Triumphal arch on the Potomac River to his Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool paint job, Trump is racing to leave a massive physical imprint on the capital that will endure long after he leaves office. Even the UFC octagon being erected on the South Lawn, a supposedly temporary installation that the president now hints could become permanent, has scant precedent in its scope and scale.
