3:31President Donald Trump displays models of an arch while giving a speech during a fundraising gala in the East Room of the Executive Mansion, October 15, 2025, in Washington.Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
With building work in progress on President Donald Trump’s extensive ballroom, this isn’t the inaugural instance of Trump endeavoring to imprint his mark on the globe’s most renowned structure and the capital, too.
“He is the chief constructor; largely, he was re-elected to this People’s House owing to his proficiency in creating things. He has been doing it all through his life, his entire vocation,” stated White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt during her appearance on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” this past Tuesday.
Trump himself lauded the ongoing demolition of the East Wing for the ballroom on Tuesday, expressing how he “adores” the sound of construction.
“That’s a delight to my ears,” the president remarked, who stated in July during an announcement concerning the ballroom, “I excel at erecting structures.”
The facade of the East Wing of the White House is being dismantled by work crews, October 22, 2025, in Washington.Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
While the ballroom may signify the most substantial alteration to the White House in nearly eight decades, Trump has supervised adjustments to other areas of the grounds in what he describes as efforts to embellish the locality.
The Rose Garden, situated in proximity to the West Wing, has served as the setting for countless outdoor presidential press briefings, gatherings, and momentous historical events since President John F. Kennedy revamped the space. The Rose Garden was paved; the administration incorporated tables accompanied by umbrellas, where he has since conducted dinners and luncheons at the “Rose Garden Club,” notably one on Tuesday with GOP senators.
Republican Senators and other attendees occupy tables under umbrellas as President Donald Trump speaks while hosting a Rose Garden Club luncheon at the White House in Washington, October 21, 2025.Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
President Donald Trump delivers remarks before posthumously bestowing the Presidential Medal of Freedom upon Charlie Kirk in the Rose Garden of the White House, Oct. 14, 2025, in Washington.Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
“It’s a gorgeous white stone, sharing a hue with the White House itself,” Trump declared in August.
The Oval Office has been transformed into a gilded chamber since Trump’s return to office, featuring golden accents scattered throughout the space typically devoid of such embellishments.
President Donald Trump and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb convene in the Oval Office at the White House, Oct. 9, 2025, in Washington.Alex Brandon/AP
Trump has introduced numerous presidential portraits in gold frames to the Oval Office walls. He has also put on display gold trophies and plaques upon the fireplace mantel and tables.
Leavitt informed the Wall Street Journal in April that Trump’s decor rendered it a “golden office for the golden era.”
President Barack Obama is presented with one of 12 bills from Staff Secretary Joani Walsh, to sign at his desk in the Oval Office at the White House December 18, 2015 in Washington, DC.Mark Wilson/Getty Images
President Joe Biden speaks behind the Resolute Desk prior to signing executive orders pertaining to immigration in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, February 2, 2021.Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
The Resolute Desk during an inauguration ceremony for Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence in the Oval Office at the White House on February 12, 2025, in Washington, DC.Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Trump has additionally set up a fresh presidential portrait exhibit along the West Wing Colonnade. While the new “Presidential Walk of Fame” showcases portraits of all the presidents in gilded frames, the portrait of former President Joe Biden is substituted with a picture of an autopen.
Framed images of US Presidents, including a picture of an “autopen” to represent former President Joe Biden, hang on the wall of the colonnade adjacent to the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, October 4, 2025.Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
The president’s ambitions to imprint his own architectural design signature on Washington has transcended the White House, and in a more permanent manner, too.
Last Wednesday, during a supper with the ballroom’s benefactors, Trump revealed his blueprints to erect a ceremonial arch — akin to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris — that would be positioned just outside Washington in a traffic circle at one end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, bordering Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
President Donald Trump holds models of an arch as he delivers remarks during a ballroom fundraising dinner in the East Room of the White House, October 15, 2025 in Washington.Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
“It’s destined to be exceptionally beautiful,” Trump remarked regarding the arch. “I anticipate it will be spectacular.”
The president asserted that the arch would be financed with surplus funds from the ballroom initiative and completed in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary next summer.
Upon a reporter inquiring who the arch was intended for, Trump gestured towards himself and stated, “me.”
In broadcasting his latest undertaking, Trump appended, “We relish revamping Washington.”
ABC News’ Karen Travers, Rachel Scott, Hannah Demissie, Michelle Stoddart, and Lalee Ibssa lent their contributions to this report.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
