Construction workers started hanging large custom-designed tarps over the North Portico’s white columns at the White House on Thursday, showing the public what President Donald Trump wants the renovated front entrance to look like.
The tarps were printed with the redesigned columns as the coverings were placed over the actual columns, as seen in photos. Under the tarps, scaffolding has been in place for days.
The purpose of the renovation is to repair the stone columns. On Memorial Day, Trump was seen inspecting the Greek-style Ionic columns for six minutes as his motorcade returned from Arlington National Cemetery.
Earlier this week, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the North Portico columns are undergoing repairs and that the project should be completed “very quickly.”
“President Trump comes out to greet a world leader, sees door dings in the pillars, and he says, ‘Look at all this stuff that needs to be repaired,’” Burgum told podcast host Katie Miller.
“It’s all historic renovation work,” he said in the interview. “We’re restoring the plaster, and not just at the door level — all the way up to the crowns of those towers.”
Speaking with reporters in the Rose Garden on Monday, Trump said construction workers have “taken about 150 years of paint off of the columns and redid them,” while blaming past presidents for treating the columns “very badly.” He took the opportunity to criticize former President Joe Biden for his lack of attention to detail.
“Do you think he walked in the office and said, ‘I don’t like the shape of the columns’?” Trump asked. “I don’t think so, Biden. I don’t like the shape of the columns. He didn’t notice things like that.”
The column renovation marks the latest project spearheaded by Trump. The White House itself is undergoing construction for a new helicopter landing pad on the South Lawn and the ambitious state ballroom that is planned to replace the demolished East Wing.
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Elsewhere in Washington, D.C., plans for a 250-foot-tall arch in honor of Trump are moving forward. The massive structure will be located across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool, the latter of which is being drained following a series of problems with the water.
Meanwhile, the Kennedy Center was supposed to be closed for two years due to an extensive renovation. That plan, however, has been halted by a federal judge, who ordered the removal of Trump’s name from the building’s facade. Notably, a white tarp remains over the center’s front sign weeks after construction workers removed Trump’s name.