Trump, 80, Brags About Ripping Up White House Lawn

Donald Trump said the plan to install a helipad on the South Lawn of the White House was his idea and shared new details on what it would look like and its cost while bragging about all the helipads he’s had over the years.

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Trump, 80, was appearing at an event on Monday inside the Oval Office when he was asked about the plans to install a helipad on the South Lawn of the White House.

For decades, presidents have taken Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, but the U.S. has a fleet of new VH-92A Patriot helicopters to transport the president, ordered under Trump.

The helicopters manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft have exhaust vents facing downward, which burn up the grass, which is an issue for landing on the White House lawn.

“They’re about two and a half times more powerful than the old ones, and when you land on the grass, it’s not that the grass gets discolored, it gets ripped out, ripped out, and it was all over,” Trump said. “They landed it once, and nobody planned for this. This was a little bit of a planning mistake. So they landed the helicopter, and half of the grass was sitting in front of the Oval Office front door.”

The initial solution was to simply keep using the old helicopters just for landing at the White House, but Trump’s solution is to add another construction project to accommodate the fleet, calling the previous plan expensive.

“I said to the people, have you ever thought—these are generals, Air Force generals that are brilliant—and you know, you get used to a certain thing,“ Trump said. ”They’d bring out the metal, but this was, now the metal didn’t work because the power of these helicopters is so great it ripped up the grass, right, so I said, ‘Has anybody ever thought of a helipad?’ Because I build them, and they go quickly, and it solves all of the problems.”

Trump bragged that he owns three Sikorsky helicopters because they have been “great” for his business.

“I always was lucky. I always got helipads. Other people don’t, very hard to get,” Trump said. “The hardest thing to get is a helipad. Okay, there’s no harder zoning thing to get is a helipad, and I had, like, seven of them at different places, so I could go around by helicopter.”

Trump said that when he pitched the idea of installing a helipad to the generals, they thought it was a “good idea.” He compared suggesting a helipad to the invention of a paperclip, such a simple invention that made a lot of money.

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“So now we’re building a helipad, beautiful helipad, and it’s got the seal of the White House on it in granite, in carved granite. It’s really a beautiful thing,” Trump declared.

The president went on to claim that Sikorsky was paying for the construction project “because they didn’t tell us how powerful these helicopters were, and they felt a little bit guilty.”

Trump has previously made claims about the costs and how his construction projects at the White House were being funded. He said the ballroom was being entirely funded by private donors, only for it to later be revealed that the venture would involve roughly $300 million in taxpayer dollars, as the project would be far more expensive than previously estimated when Trump first announced it.

“I don’t know. They felt a little guilty, and they are paying for the cost of it,” Trump said of the helipad construction. It’s about $5 or $6 million. They’re paying the full cost, and when I heard they were paying the cost, I went out and said, ‘Let’s do a beauty.’”

The president went on to describe the plans for the helipad in detail. It comes after Trump previously ripped out the grass in the Rose Garden to install a patio with Mar-a-Lago-style outdoor seating and umbrellas to host events last year.

“Let’s not just do a piece of concrete and paint it white,” Trump said. “This one is a beauty. It’s got the seal of the White House. It’s beautiful- the eagle and it’s carved out of granite”

Trump declared it was being done by “some of the most talented people you’ll ever meet.”

He went on to briefly note that he had previously replaced a walkway at the White House with granite. That one was with non-slip pavers along the West Wing Colonnade.

“It’s got a 1 million-plus lifetime,” Trump claimed. “It’s the strongest stone there is, and that’s being used out there, and it’s going to be, I think, really beautiful.”

Trump suggested that when it wasn’t being used for a helipad, it could also be used for other events, including news conferences. Trump has often claimed he needed to replace the grass in the Rose Garden because people could not walk on it when the president held news conferences.

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