Mother Jones
· collected 2026-09-03 · by Reported by Dan Friedman with Video by Peter Berger
Donald Trump’s beloved White House ballroom is moving ahead—at a reported cost of $900 million and counting—thanks to a 5-4 ruling Monday from the Supreme Court.
asserted
ballroom → move → Court
The ballroom is just one of a slew of active or would-be construction sites where the president is hoping to leave his mark on Washington.
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president → hop → Washington
But for now, it’s an exception.
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it → ’ → ?
Many of Trump’s other pet projects are in limbo, stalled by botched construction and legal challenges.
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Many → stall → construction
Congress has declined to appropriate billions of dollars the administration wants for so-called “beautification” efforts in DC, but the White House has used money from elsewhere in federal budget, including roughly $100 million collected as National Park entrance fees, to pay for the work.
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House → decline → work
A mile west of the White House, the Kennedy Center remains closed—a tarp obscuring the facade where a federal judge ordered Trump’s name removed.
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name → remain → facade
Trump’s plans for the performing arts center, including custom marble armrests, more shows like “Cats,” and his name on the wall, have so far failed.
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plans → perform → wall
His dismay seemed to animate a recent court filing in which the Justice Department threatened that the center could be demolished if Trump’s plans remained blocked in court.
uncertain
plans → seem → court
A mile or so south, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool sits drained and fenced off—months after the president trumpeted its grand reopening.
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president → sit → reopening
Following its renovation, the pool closed due to algae blooms and peeling “American flag blue” liner.
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pool → follow → blooms
In late July, the Justice Department acknowledged the peeling resulted from flawed work by a contractor that had received a no-bid contract, worth more than $15 million so far, from the Trump administration.
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that → acknowledge → administration
That admission came in a court filing dropping felony charges against an alleged vandal who Trump had blamed for the damage.
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Trump → come → damage
Trump recently claimed the reflecting will re-open, again, within weeks.
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reflecting → claim → weeks
But his track record on this topic suggests skepticism is warranted.
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skepticism → suggest → topic
Across the Potomac River via Memorial Bridge, the administration hopes to construct what critics have dubbed the “Arc de’ Trump.”
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critics → hop → what
The plan for that 250-foot monument, which Trump has said is for “me,” received initial approval this summer from a key federal commission packed with Trump allies, and backing from the Trump-controlled National Park Service.
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Trump → say → Service
But the proposal has faced stiff legal opposition, in part because the arch would block views of Arlington National Cemetery, leaving its future is uncertain.
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arch → face → future
Even less likely to be built is the so-called “National Garden of American Heroes.”
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Garden → build → Heroes
That’s the statue garden featuring sculptures of 250 Americans that the president hopes to plant along the Potomac near the Jefferson Memorial.
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president → ’ → Memorial
Trump first floated the statue garden in 2020 as a sort of anti-woke answer to the removal of statues of Confederates, slave owners, and other historical figures around the country.
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Trump → float → country
Congressional Republicans allocated funding for the project, and the administration initially hoped to complete it by July 4 of this year—in time for the semiquincentennial.
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administration → allocate → semiquincentennial
Trump’s team also set up a nonprofit and began seeking corporate donations for the plan.
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team → set → plan
The same foundation is also raising funds to build a luxury golf course on a flood-prone island in the Potomac, where Trump has claimed construction will start soon.
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construction → raise → Potomac
But July 4 has come and gone, and the statue garden is nowhere close to ready.
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garden → come → ?
Sculptors have called the plan “unworkable” due to limited statue-making capacity.
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Sculptors → call → capacity
And the site also sits in a location where new “commemorative work” cannot be built without additional congressional approval.
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work → sit → approval
Congress has not approved this specific plan for the garden, meaning a lawsuit seeking to block the effort might well succeed.
uncertain
lawsuit → approve → effort
Trump has, however, planted statues elsewhere.
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Trump → plant → statues
He put a new statue of Christopher Columbus on the White House grounds—take that, Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
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He → put → Day
And in Freedom Plaza, a park just southeast of the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, the administration in April installed 14 statues.
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administration → instal → statues
These include a large equestrian depiction of Caesar Rodney, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
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These → include → Independence
That statue had sat in storage since 2020, when it was removed from a perch in Wilmington, Delaware, due to Rodney’s status as a major slaveowner.
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it → sit → slaveowner
We reported in July that Trump’s Interior Department paid $527,000 for rushed construction of the pedestal on which it now stands.
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it → report → which
That’s around twice what the department had estimated the statue base should cost.
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base → ’ → what
“The work was expedited to ensure it is done before our nation’s 250th,” an Interior Department official told Mother Jones.
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official → expedite → Jones
Back by the White House are other public works projects the administration rushed to complete by July 4.
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administration → rush → July
The National Park Service spent $17.4 million through a no-bid contract to repair two ornamental fountains.
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Service → spend → fountains
The contract, first reported by the New York Times, was secretly awarded to Clark Construction, the same firm that is building the ballroom.
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that → report → ballroom
The fountains now work.
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fountains → work → ?
But they are hard to see because of the 13-foot steel fences the administration installed around Lafayette Park.
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administration → see → Park
…and 2 more, not listed.
