WASHINGTON – As deliberations continue over the future of a prominent Washington park, a federal judge made it clear this week that she has no plans to emulate Amy Poehler’s character from the popular television series “Parks and Recreation,” where Poehler portrayed a dedicated parks department head.
Interestingly, former President Donald Trump might be more inclined to step into such a role.
In the aftermath of a tense exchange between the United States and Iran on Thursday, Trump took a brief visit to the National Mall. His purpose? To inspect the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which he had directed to be repainted in a hue he calls “American flag blue.”
Recently, this renovation has occupied Trump’s thoughts. During a lengthy speech to small-business owners on Monday, he devoted about nine minutes to discussing the painting project. He highlighted the granite flooring and proudly claimed to have reduced the renovation’s budget to $1.9 million from an alleged original estimate of $350 million.
Trump’s next potential undertaking is East Potomac Park, which features an affordable public golf course offering stunning views of the Washington Monument.
The former president has expressed interest in transforming the park into a luxurious “U.S. Open-caliber course.” However, this week, signs were placed warning of potential disruptions. The move has prompted preservation advocates to seek legal recourse after debris from the White House East Wing demolition, tested positive for lead, was found on the site.
By late Friday, the nonprofit that operates the course said it would continue managing the space until the National Park Service begins a “historic restoration.”
Meanwhile, the White House told a planning agency that it would cost taxpayers at least $7.5 million to follow through on Trump’s plan to paint the granite Eisenhower Executive Office Building white.
And that was just this week in Washington’s extreme makeover.
All the president’s projects
Over the past year, Trump has bulldozed the East Wing to make way for a ballroom. His name was added to the facades of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Kennedy Center, which he plans to close for a two-year renovation. His face adorns a banner at the Department of Justice’s headquarters, among others. He is pushing for a triumphal arch near Arlington Cemetery and has closed parks, including Lafayette Square across from the White House, for a rehab.
Trump is guaranteeing himself a lasting imprint on a city where he won just 6.5% of the vote in 2024. He is flexing extraordinary executive power and offering fresh insight into how he spends his time, perhaps a president’s most valuable asset.
As the Washington projects unfolded this week, the ceasefire in Iran was at risk of unraveling, motor club AAA said the average price of a gallon of gas surpassed $4.50 and elections provided new evidence of Democratic enthusiasm heading into the November elections.
“It’s not a zero-sum game but obviously all presidents have limited amounts of capital they can use and limited amounts of attention that they have to give,” said presidential historian Julian Zelizer of Princeton University. “And he’s deciding, in a moment of war, a moment of economic instability, that this is a priority.”
Trump rejects such concerns.
Asked at the Reflecting Pool why he was focused on the project given the U.S. military action in Iran, he said, “Our country is about beauty, cleanliness, safety, great people. Not a filthy capital.”
Political considerations for Republicans
For Republicans defending slim congressional majorities, it is not so simple. Many would prefer to talk about policy accomplishments, including tax cuts, rather than multimillion-dollar Washington construction projects.
While few directly criticize Trump, there is an acknowledgment that the party needs to confront economic realities.
“A lot of Americans are very worried about the cost of living and we need to address it,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said recently.
A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted in late April found that 52% percent of Americans oppose Trump’s planned arch. That includes about 6 in 10 independents. Some 51% of Republicans favor it.
Americans oppose the ballroom by a 2-to-1 margin, driven largely by Democrats and independents. About 2 in 10 Republicans oppose the project, according to the poll. The poll did not find a notable shift in support of the ballroom after a shooting at last month’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Trump has cited that incident in his push for a secure facility, something he did not mention when he initially ordered the demolition of the East Wing.
Trump is showing no sign of backing away from any of the projects. In a sign of the GOP’s loyalty to him, Republican senators added $1 billion in White House security upgrades for the ballroom to an unrelated bill this week. Trump initially said taxpayer money would not be needed.
A dizzying pace of change in Washington
In a city where historic preservation is often sacred, the pace of change has been dizzying.
Rebecca Miller, the executive director of DC Preservation League, has spent 23 years at the organization, which sued to stop the golf course takeover and joined a coalition attempting to force the Kennedy Center to comply with preservation laws. She said her organization has worked with administrations of both parties and called the Trump moves “highly unusual.”
“One of the problems that we have right now is an administration that seems to think that it can just plow ahead without any input,” she said. “These assets are owned by the people of the United States. They’re not anybody’s personal portfolio.”
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said Trump is “laser-focused on lowering costs for working families, deporting illegal criminals, keeping our cities safe, beautifying our nation’s capital, and protecting our national security by ensuring Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon all at the same time.”
This is not the first time a White House has taken an interest in Washington’s appearance.
During Lyndon Johnson’s administration, first lady Lady Bird Johnson oversaw beautification efforts that included planting trees and flowers throughout the District of Columbia.
Her efforts were sometimes derided as distractions from other pressing issues, such as the Vietnam War. But she implemented them in coordination with local officials.
“Lady Bird Johnson was trying to bring out the natural beauty of Washington,” said Mark Updegrove, chairman of the LBJ Foundation and a presidential historian. “Donald Trump is trying to remake the nation’s capital in his own image.”
Trump’s assertion of power over Washington, including the continued deployment of National Guard troops, has animated the city’s Democratic primary next month for key local offices, including mayor and delegate to Congress.
The first question at a forum for mayoral candidates this week focused on how to protect the Home Rule Act, the 1973 law that gave the city limited self-government. The candidates said they would stand up to Trump as needed, though one contender, Vincent Orange, noted that national Democrats had also failed the district.
“The two times that we had an opportunity at statehood, it was the Democrats who let us down,” he said, referring to failed congressional attempts to make the city a state with full rights of representation.
In an interview, Janeese Lewis George, a D.C. Council member and top candidate in the mayor’s race, said city officials need to do a better job of making their case in Congress for statehood. She said Trump’s impact on the city is broader than the renovations, as she referred to the troop deployments as a “federal occupation” and noted the fallout from immigration enforcement activity and cuts to the federal workforce.
“The people of our city are afraid,” she said. “It’s the mayor’s job to really let the nation know that D.C. has uniquely been left vulnerable.”
Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican who often supported the city’s autonomy when he was a congressman, said the renovations offer an “opportunity to bring some money into the city and spruce up stuff that you wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
“But this is tough,” he said. “This is not a city that is in love with the president.”
___
Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
