{"id":4645,"date":"2026-07-31T14:14:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationwideinterstatemovers.com\/?p=4645"},"modified":"2026-07-31T14:14:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:14:47","slug":"star-nyt-reporter-reveals-whats-taking-over-trumps-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationwideinterstatemovers.com\/?p=4645","title":{"rendered":"Star NYT Reporter Reveals What\u2019s Taking Over Trump\u2019s Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The New York Times\u2019 Maggie Haberman claims President Donald Trump is consumed by an obsession with renovations and monuments to himself.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump Sends Ice Maiden to Clean Up His Embarrassing Mess<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that the 80-year-old president has spent much of his second term putting his stamp on everything from the White House to the Kennedy Center, but the co-author of the bestselling book Regime Change<\/i> says the fixation runs far deeper than the public realizes\u2014so much so that it appears to occupy an outsized share of his attention.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you looked at a chart of his mind share, this I will say about getting into his mind: Seventy percent of it would be on his renovations,\u201d Haberman said during an appearance on The Ezra Klein Show<\/i> podcast, released Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The White House correspondent illustrated her point with an anecdote from March, when she and fellow Times reporter Jonathan Swan sat down with Trump in the Oval Office for a fact-check interview for their book. Haberman said the president spent much of the conversation focused on his renovation plans, even as the war in Iran he had launched was unfolding.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Day 17 of the war, and he\u2019s telling us: Here\u2019s my models of the ballroom\u2014and so forth. It was like he didn\u2019t have a care in the world,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

When Klein asked whether any policy issues occupied Trump\u2019s attention in the same way as his renovations, Haberman\u2019s answer was blunt: no.<\/p>\n

Since returning to office, Trump has initiated more White House renovation projects than can be tracked on two hands.<\/p>\n

The primary focus of his real estate overhaul is a massive 90,000-square-foot ballroom currently being constructed on the demolished site of the historic East Wing, which has grown in both physical scale and overall cost as construction progresses.<\/p>\n

The Rose Garden was another victim of the president\u2019s renovations and was stripped of its traditional lawn layout in favor of a paved outdoor patio, while the Lincoln Bedroom bathroom underwent a gut renovation that Trump publicly insisted was designed to match the stylistic period of the Lincoln era, unlike the old design, which he deemed \u201ctotally inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s \u2018Princess of Darkness\u2019 Cash Grab Exposed<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s design ambitions have stretched beyond the White House walls. He oversaw a $16 million project to paint the floor of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool an \u201cAmerican Flag Blue,\u201d an effort that derailed when rapid algae growth turned the basin murky green, and the newly applied paint began peeling.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s broader ambitions for Washington, D.C., include a proposed 250-foot arch modeled after Paris\u2019s Arc de Triomphe\u2014already dubbed the \u201cArc de Trump\u201d\u2014with an estimated $100 million price tag, as well as a newly unveiled $22 billion proposal to overhaul Washington Dulles International Airport. <\/p>\n

Together, the projects\u2014which continue to multiply, with the president unveiling the \u201cArts of War\u201d and \u201cArts of Peace\u201d statues this week, a pair of giant horse-and-rider sculptures coated in 24-karat gold\u2014represent Trump\u2019s latest efforts to reshape the nation\u2019s landscape with his own personal imprint.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a legacy thing, but I always think of legacy with him as different than the way we usually use the word \u2018legacy,\u2019\u201d Haberman told Klein. <\/p>\n

She said Trump\u2019s driving question is not \u201cWhat am I leaving behind for the world?\u201d but instead \u201cWhat am I leaving behind so the world can\u2019t kick me off the world,\u201d which is, Haberman suggested, a quest to create monuments and a legacy that cannot be undone.<\/p>\n

Yet, Trump\u2019s push to cement his name into history has already hit a roadblock. A judge ruled last month that his attempt to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to include his name was illegal, leaving the president to watch his branding removed from the building.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe degree of mind share on these projects is vast,\u201d Haberman repeated during the interview, arguing that Trump is \u201cvastly less interested in and reactive to domestic politics this time\u201d as Republicans brace for a difficult November midterm election cycle.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump Slapped Down in Court Defeat Over 54-Minute Firing<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment. <\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times\u2019 Maggie Haberman claims President Donald Trump is consumed by an obsession with renovations and monuments to himself. Read more Trump Sends Ice Maiden to Clean Up His Embarrassing Mess It\u2019s no secret that the 80-year-old president has spent much of his second term putting his stamp on everything from the White […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trumpland"],"yoast_head":"\nStar NYT Reporter Reveals What\u2019s Taking Over Trump\u2019s Mind - Nationwide Inter State Movers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationwideinterstatemovers.com\/?p=4645\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Star NYT Reporter Reveals What\u2019s Taking Over Trump\u2019s Mind - Nationwide Inter State Movers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New York Times\u2019 Maggie Haberman claims President Donald Trump is consumed by an obsession with renovations and monuments to himself. 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