Exclusive | Trumps big, beautiful, Mar-a-Lago-inspired renovation plans for the White House: Keeps my real estate juices flowing
When he’s not busy ending wars, deporting illegal aliens, overhauling the federal bureaucracy and drastically reordering world trade, the president has big plans for matters closer to home.Donald Trump, the property developer, is busting out of the political straitjacket to bling the Oval Office and reimagine the White House.From planning a “beautiful, magnificent” new ballroom to paving over the Rose Garden to create a convivial Mar-a-Lago- style terrace, the 45th-turned-47th president is determined to make his mark on the White House this time.“It keeps my real estate juices flowing,” he told a reporter recently.Last week, after announcing a pause on reciprocal tariffs, Trump took personal interest in rearranging presidential portraits in the grand White House entrance hall.Because he is serving non-consecutive presidential terms, he gets to display two official portraits in the White House and has been mulling over four or five traditional versions in muted tones created by official artists, including one memorable painting in which he looks fierce as he leans on the edge of the Resolute desk.But last week he chose a temporary artistic addition to the grand foyer: a colorful painting of himself after last year’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., with his face bloodied and fist raised, capturing the iconic moment that he thinks may have turned the election for him.The striking painting will stay in the foyer for two or three months, before a more traditional portrait takes its place.It replaced a modernistic portrait of Barack Obama, which was moved across the hall to replace one of George W.
Bush.Bush was moved into the stairway that leads up the private residence, where he now sits alongside his father, a nice touch for the Bush family who are due to visit the White House for an event in the summer.Keeping Obama’s portrait in pride of place in the foyer was driven in part because its modern frame matches the new Trump portrait but also, judgi...