Split Screen: Building a Legacy by Destroying History
The chaos, cranes, and constant changes are intentional.
In his second term, President Trump has demolished not just democratic norms, global alliances, and constitutional protections but also federal landmarks, including the White House itself.
I’ve previously reported on his golden embellishments in the Oval Office, which visually situates our nation’s most iconic executive room in the tradition of monarchies and fascist regimes, and on the gendered dynamics of the $600 million demolition of the East Wing. Trump continues to use construction to perpetrate his fascist project, transfer taxpayer dollars to friends, and distract from disastrous policy failures like the Iran war.
Other presidents have made major changes to the White House over the past 250 years. Franklin D. Roosevelt converted a cloakroom into the White House movie theater. Richard M. Nixon covered an indoor pool to build the Press Briefing Room and is responsible for the famous basement bowling alley. John F. Kennedy redesigned the Rose Garden. George W. Bush modernized the Situation Room and installed a solar electric system. Barack Obama converted a tennis court into a multipurpose basketball court, and Michelle Obama planted the White House Kitchen Garden.
Though those projects were surely motivated by personal taste and an eye toward legacy, Trump’s are tainted by motivations of vanity, opulence, spectacle, and grift rather than practical, modernizing upgrades and restorations. Even more damning, they are the most sweeping and expensive in history. New reporting confirms the cost could exceed $1 billion — while the U.S. national debt reaches the highest level in history, growing faster than the economy.
The administration loves to justify the cost by arguing that it’s a mix of taxpayer and private donations. That might or might not be true. Many of the donations are funneled into weird charities shrouded in secrecy. And allowing private donors to fund federal government projects, including at the White House, is ethically murky and bound to be legally questionable. Trump has financially benefitted from unprecedented trades and his stakes in dozens of companies with government contracts.
He’s building his legacy by destroying history; he’s leaving his mark on the White House and Washington, D.C., not with an eye toward the future but his personal brand, stamped in as many places as possible. Below is my attempt to review Trump’s incessant construction projects just in the past six months.
He hung banners of his face on federal buildings.
He spent $2 million to pave the Rose Garden with stone and install patio tables and yellow-and-white-striped umbrellas. The new “Rose Garden Club” now looks like Mar-a-Lago’s beach club — pure coincidence, I’m sure.
He renamed the Institute of Peace (the independent, nonpartisan institute that supports the executive in resolving violent conflict abroad) the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace; Trump falsely claims he has ended eight world conflicts after starting a war with Iran and kidnapping the president of Venezuela. The institute’s website features multiple images of what can only be described as war.
Trump’s attempt to add his name to the Kennedy Center and shutter the institution for major renovations was ruled illegal by a federal judge on May 29.
In January, the administration again bypassed competitive bidding to award nearly $17 million for park renovations to the same contractor that is building a $600 million ballroom where the East Wing used to stand. Clark Construction fenced off Lafayette Square purportedly for fountain repairs, new irrigation, turf replacement, and new granite walkways. Despite completing the construction, the historic area remains fenced off. The administration proposes to permanently fence off the area and transform the landscaping, such as planting 47 trees to honor his 47th presidency.
In March, the head of the Commission of Fine Arts suggested they were considering replacing the iconic Ionic White House Portico columns for the more ornate Corinthian style, which Trump reportedly prefers. He posted a photo of these Corinthian columns on Truth Social on July 5 with no context. In May, the Commission – stacked with Trump loyalists — approved Trump’s designs for a triumphal arch at perhaps the most famous entrance to Washington, D.C. That plan has been met with extensive criticism — and a lawsuit — from the veteran community for disrupting the symbolic view of Arlington National Cemetery and potentially impeding funeral processions for fallen servicemembers. In proposing the arch, Trump said, “We’re the only important and major city that doesn’t have one.” When asked, “Who is it for?” Trump replied, “Me.”
Last month, the administration awarded $14.8 million, including more no-bid contracts, to companies without federal contract experience for the Lincoln Memorial Pool renovation.
Also in June, the UFC erected a 92-foot-tall “claw” on the South Lawn for the infamous UFC Freedom 250 fight; the organization estimated it would spend $700,000 to restore the damaged grass.
This week, Trump explained that a Lockheed Martin subsidiary was paying $5 million for a new granite helipad on the South Lawn by implying that the more powerful helicopter fleet they were developing required a different surface to land on.
Trump’s fascist construction projects make clear his vision for our country. Don’t be surprised if a golden eagle resembling Nazi propaganda appears on the White House balcony: Trump already posted an AI-generated image of it.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has repeatedly used the moniker “builder-in-chief” for the president, describing him as “good at building things.” Trump described himself as having “two jobs” — apparently commander-in-chief isn’t full-time enough for him — articulating that “I have a construction job, which is really like relaxation for me because I have been doing it all my life.” From a 2025 Truth Social post: “Just inspected the site of the new Ballroom that will be built, compliments of a man known as Donald Trump…. These are ‘fun’ projects I do while thinking about the World Economy, the United States, China, Russia, and lots of other Countries, places, and events.” The Post reported that Trump has talked about his construction projects more than health care, wages, and China.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Bob the Builder to be my president. Mother Jones reported that Trump’s first 30 years in business were marked by financial collapse and multimillion dollar bailouts from his father. Now we, the American taxpayers, are footing the bill for the most expensive renovations in history while our debt balloons. And there is no sign of stopping.
The bizarre and unsettling images over the past 18 months of Trump 2.0 — the chaos, cranes, and constant changes — are part of his playbook. They overwhelm our understanding of institutional memory with gobbledygook rants to reporters, grammatically insane social media posts, and images, many of which are AI-generated or mockups of what’s to come. It’s sometimes hard to know what’s real anymore. But we can’t forget that this is not normal. And much of it is legally questionable.
Of course, improving federal buildings and our nation’s capital is any president’s prerogative. But just like everything else with this administration, Trump has distorted reason into fiction, writing a self-centered story and having taxpayers pick up the check.
It’s up to us, the viewers — Americans, patriots, we who care deeply about our country, its symbols, and its laws — to keep questioning the motives of all this rubble. We must realize that these images are intended to confuse us. Let us not fall for all the gilded distractions.
Azza Cohen (she/her) is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who served as Vice President Kamala Harris’s official videographer in the White House. She recently founded a production company with her wife, Kathleen, and is writing a book about visual sexism from a cinematographer’s perspective. Uncover and address visual sexism alongside Azza every other week here on The Contrarian and on Instagram and Bluesky. The New Yorker distributed her film “FLOAT!” in 2023.
Limited Edition Screen Prints!
Celebrate America 250 with The Art of Resistance
This limited-edition collection of screen prints is created to honor the American tradition of leveraging creative expression to inspire change.
All proceeds from merch sales go towards funding critical litigation and resistance journalism to fight back against Trump and uphold democracy.
 | A guest post by
|