newrepublic.com67%
Surprise! Trump Is Renovating Even More Parts of the White House 42%
By Edith Olmsted90%
7/10/2026, 8:19:39 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 6 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Politically Left Leaning Bias, and Ad Hominem, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 28.4% saturation with 120 hits. Analysis detected 399 faulty-reasoning hits from 423 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 47.6% and a BS Rank of 42% (8,220 of 14,148 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 58.10% of the article peer group.
President Donald Trump isn’t done transforming one of the nation’s most iconic buildings into an active construction site and expecting Americans to foot the bill.
The front doors of the White House, which face toward Lafayette Park and pedestrian traffic, are currently undergoing security improvements, as repairs are made to the iconic columns on the North Portico, CBS News reported Friday.
On Friday, tarps were spotted on the front of the White House’s North Portico, printed with images of what the structure should look like while renovations carry on underneath.
This is just the most recent renovation project the White House has undertaken without approval from Congress, which is required to approve any construction on federal land.
For months, Trump has treated the White House—which belongs to all Americans, not just the president—like one of his gaudy resort properties.
Last month, Trump began construction on a helipad in the South Lawn without any official notice .
At the same time, the Trump administration moved to renovate the White House’s South Portico and re-top the driveway.
The White House later demanded the contractor speed up the project’s timeline, adding $875,000 to the already $13 million price tag.
The contractor’s documents showed that the company received a last-minute demand to complete construction by mid-September in anticipation of an “upcoming state visit.”
The request was made just days after Trump invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit the White House on September 24.
The North Portico project is also estimated to be completed around mid-September.
Trump claimed that Sikorsky, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin that builds Marine One helicopters, would cover the cost of a $5 million or $6 million helipad—but it seems likely that American taxpayers will pick up the tab for the rest of his construction.
That wasn’t the first time that the budget for one of the president’s renovations has exploded.
Trump originally claimed that his White House ballroom project would only cost $200 million and wouldn’t touch the original building.
But Trump then demolished the White House’s East Wing, and the cost of construction ballooned to $300 million, and then $400 million after he decided to tack on extra building .
Last month, a bombshell report revealed that taxpayers would actually be responsible for half of a $600 million price tag.
But there’s reason to be concerned about the former slumlord’s various construction projects: Just look at the president’s toxic Reflecting Pool or his crumbling venue for the Fourth of July!
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