He paved over the White House Rose Garden, installed giant American flags on the north and south lawns and announced plans for a brand new Mar-a-Lago-inspired ballroom.
But President Donald Trump raised quite a few eyebrows on Tuesday when he joked about his next big building project: nuclear missiles.
The real estate mogul turned Commander-in-Chief made the remark while taking an impromptu walk on the roof of the White House Briefing Room where press secretary Karoline Leavitt regularly spars with journalists.
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After Trump inspected his surrounds, some correspondents shouted out: “Mr President, what are you trying to build?”
“Missiles,” he replied, as he pointed towards the north lawn. “Nuclear missiles.”
“Did he say missiles?” confused journalists asked one another below.
The jovial answer came as America’s otherwise serious nuclear posturing and ambitions have ramped up in recent days.
On Friday, Trump ordered nuclear submarines to be positioned near Russia in response to escalating threats from Moscow.
The direction came after Trump and Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev traded blows online, resulting in Medvedev likening Trump to “Sleepy Joe” Biden and warning that Russia had Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities.
The administration also confirmed this week that it is planning to build a nuclear reactor on the moon as it seeks to push ahead in the global space race.
“We’re in a race to the moon, in a race with China to the moon, and to have a base on the moon, we need energy,” Transportation Secretary and interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Trump’s impromptu White House roof walk also prompted speculation that the president may be planning more renovations, particularly as he was on the west side of the White House, directly on top of the press briefing room.
Built in 1970, the aging room has become increasingly cramped this year due to the high number of reporters and MAGA influencers vying for space during Leavitt’s briefings.
In September, construction also begins on Trump’s $200 million ballroom—a 90,000-square foot project that the president first raised in 2010, when Trump called David Axlerod, then an adviser to President Barack Obama, and offered to build it.
“Let me build you a ballroom you can assemble and take apart,” Axelrod recalled Trump saying. “Trust me. It’ll look great.”
Fifteen years later, the project, to be built where the East Wing currently sits, is yet another example of the president putting his stamp on the executive mansion.
“Anything I do is financed by me, so you don’t have to worry,” he told reporters. “It’s contributed—just like my salary is contributed. But nobody ever mentions that.”
