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  "path": "/post/212529/trump-white-house-construction-helipad",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-30T13:11:55.000Z",
  "site": "https://newrepublic.com",
  "tags": [
    "Breaking News",
    "Politics",
    "Republicans",
    "Republican Party",
    "United States",
    "Donald Trump",
    "White House",
    "reports",
    "ballroom",
    "Rose Garden",
    "UFC fight match",
    "triumphal arch"
  ],
  "textContent": "President Trump is once again building something at the White House without any warning.\n\nTrump is building a new helipad on the White House’s South Lawn, _The Washington Post_ reports, with construction crews already working on the project Monday. The helipad is being built on the lawn’s south portico, near where the presidential helicopter, Marine One, traditionally is kept, and a large fence is blocking off the construction.\n\nThe project has not been announced, and is supposed to solve the problem of new Sikorsky helicopters built by Lockheed Martin possibly burning the White House lawn due to their exhaust vents. The defense company is reportedly donating $5 million to help pay for the helipad.\n\nOther administrations have refrained from building a permanent helipad on the White House grounds due to concerns of historical preservation, as well as ruining the classical image of presidents boarding Marine One on the grass near the White House.\n\nIn his second term, Trump has shown that he has no regard for history or tradition where the White House is concerned, unceremoniously demolishing its East Wing to build a massive ballroom, paving over the Rose Garden and replacing it with a stone patio, and holding a UFC fight match on the South Lawn.\n\nTrump can at least argue that this project is operationally necessary. But he’s already done so much damage to the White House in order to push his own gaudy design aesthetic, and because he’s kept his helipad plans under the radar, nobody knows what it’s going to look like.\n\nTrump has repeatedly shown in his second term that if he wants something built a certain way, he won’t listen to any criticism or preserve any history, no matter how tacky his designs. Just look at the hideous designs for his “triumphal arch.”",
  "title": "Trump Begins Another White House Renovation Project With No Notice"
}