"Donald Trump has framed all of his self-aggrandizing White House renovation projects as acts of generosity. Paving the Rose Garden to make it look exactly like his beloved Mar-a-Lago patio? The president repeatedly insisted he was just concerned about women's high heels sinking into wet grass. The two huge flagpoles the president erected on the White House grounds? "They've needed flagpoles for 200 years!" Trump claimed."
"The original press release even included a quote from White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, suggesting Americans are lucky to have Trump sharing his gifts. "President Trump is a builder at heart and has an extraordinary eye for detail," Wiles said. "The President and the Trump White House are fully committed to working with the appropriate organizations to preserving the special history of the White House while building a beautiful ballroom that can be enjoyed by future Administrations and generations of Americans to come.""
"So it's no surprise that Team Trump is presenting his latest project, a large arch modeled after Paris's Arc de Triomphe, as anything but a presidential vanity project - though outsiders have already dubbed it the "Arc de Trump." Last week, Trump reposted a watercolor rendition of a "triumphal arch" to commemorate America's 250th anniversary, which architect Nicolas Leo Charbonneau of Harrison Design had posted online a month earlier:"
Donald Trump has repeatedly framed White House renovation projects as acts of generosity. He justified paving the Rose Garden by saying he was concerned about women’s high heels sinking into wet grass. He defended installing two large flagpoles by declaring they had been needed for 200 years. The administration is pursuing a major ballroom renovation described as a "much-needed and exquisite addition," with chief of staff Susie Wiles praising his eye for detail and commitment to preserving White House history. A proposed triumphal arch modeled on Paris’s Arc de Triomphe was reposted by Trump for America’s 250th, earning the nickname "Arc de Trump."
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