CNN
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While President Donald Trump weighs the single most consequential decision of his time in office so far — the possibility of US military intervention in Iran — he’s also completing a personal project years in the making.
Trump on Wednesday morning oversaw the installation of a pair of flagpoles on the White House lawn, one on the south side of the building, the other on the north.
“These are the best poles anywhere in the country or in the world,” the president told a group of reporters assembled to witness construction workers putting one of them up.
“It’s a very exciting project to me,” he said.
That he’s taking on such major White House building projects in his second term – after coming under fire for changes to the space during his first – reflects an emboldened Trump impervious to criticism.
Asked what gave him the idea to make the changes, Trump offered a revealing answer.
“I’ve had it for a long time. In the first term I had it, but, you know, you guys were after me. I said I had to focus. I was the hunted. And now I’m the hunter. There’s a big difference,” he said.
Trump spent nearly an hour inspecting and commenting on the flagpole’s installation, despite heightened international tensions awaiting him. And while he refused to directly answer reporters’ shouted questions about whether he would order the US military to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, his presence on the lawn underscored a president operating at his own pace.
Hours later, Trump returned outside, flanked by, among others, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who were at the White House for the swearing in of Charles Kushner as ambassador to France. The president saluted the large American flag, which required five men to hoist up the newly erected pole.
Trump is still a real estate magnate, enthusiastically consumed with the finer details of construction – including the materials used inside the poles, which he says he paid for himself. The reality of his day job, however, repeatedly cut in to Wednesday’s festivities.
Trump fielded questions on Iran, Israel, immigration and protests in California. In between, he marveled at the process of lifting the pole, which he said cost “like $50,000.”
“They put sand inside, and if they use dirt or anything else other than sand, it rots out the pole over a period of years. But sand, for some reason, chemically just works. It gives you flexibility and it doesn’t do anything to the cask,” he said as he observed the new, nearly-100-foot pole being put in the ground.
“I love construction,” he added. “I love it, I know it better than anybody.”
Trump greeted the construction workers and crane operators, and turned to consult them repeatedly during a question-and-answer session with press, once on immigration, a second time on the Russia-Ukraine war.
“Russia-Ukraine is so stupid, would’ve never happened if I was president. You guys agree with that, right?” Trump said as men in hard hats assembled behind him nodded their heads in agreement.
Trump is no stranger to large-scale flagpole installations.
Back in 2006, he violated Palm Beach town ordinances when he put an 80-foot flagpole on the grounds of his Mar-a-Lago club, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Per the newspaper’s reporting, Trump sued the town for $10 million “over repeated demands that he withdraw the pole. He later increased the damage demand to $25 million. The town began fining Trump $1,250 a day on Jan. 6, 2007, for the code violations.” Trump and the town ultimately settled, and he installed a 70-foot flagpole further inland.
Wednesday’s pole raising is not the only change coming to the White House as the president seeks to make it more like his Florida club. Construction on the White House Rose Garden is underway, and the historic garden’s green grass is now completely torn up in preparation for a patio installation over the coming weeks.
Trump told Fox News in a March interview he planned to remodel the space with pavers, saying the grass “doesn’t work.”
Over the weekend, the patch of grass that has served as a centerpiece for major events since the Kennedy administration gave way to dirt, filled in with gravel by Wednesday. Multiple tractors, along with PVC piping, hardwood, tarps and other construction equipment, filled the space.
The garden’s iconic roses and other plants, however, remained intact and are not expected to be removed.
As for Trump’s plans to build a ballroom near the White House East Wing, he said Wednesday that construction will “start pretty soon.”
This headline has been updated.
