At a time when his poll numbers are sagging, the economy is sputtering and the war he launched in Iran simply will not end, President Trump spent Tuesday morning showing off his skills in the profession he feels most comfortable with: real estate.<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump summoned reporters to the White House to give them a peek at the giant hole where the East Wing once stood, before he had that part of the complex torn down to make way for a $400 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a little breakfast for you,\u201d Mr. Trump said as White House staff members laid out bacon-and-egg breakfast sandwiches<\/a> and Cokes.<\/p>\n While the president held court, construction workers busied themselves behind him, hammering and banging and beginning to erect columns to support the weight of the ballroom. Mr. Trump attacked his critics, called Democrats \u201cDumocrats,\u201d and discussed the latest in the Iran war.<\/p>\n But the president also made clear that discussing the ballroom was when he felt most at ease, and that the real estate development business, which Mr. Trump entered following the footsteps of his father, was where he felt most talented.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a really good builder,\u201d he said. \u201cThe thing I do best in life is build.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a glimpse of the mind-set of a president who has increasingly come under criticism for being out of touch<\/a> with the things that Americans are most concerned about: the economy, for one, and seeing an end to a deeply unpopular and expensive war.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really have enough time to explain it to people,\u201d Mr. Trump said about the complexities of the war and the dangers of Iran having a nuclear weapon. He said he was \u201ctoo busy getting it done.\u201d But on Tuesday, he had ample time to go over his design choices for the ballroom.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you take a look at this section,\u201d Mr. Trump said, pointing to the different styles in the ballroom’s design and describing how they were inspired by ancient Greek or Roman architecture. \u201cThis is a Greek, more or less. It comes out of Greece. This is the ultimate facade for Greece. This face is the Treasury building. This face is a different facade \u2014 that\u2019s Rome.\u201d<\/p>\n He then began to detail the security features involved in the project. Mr. Trump said it would include a secure bunker extending six floors into the Earth. The bunker, the president has said, will have bomb shelters, \u201cvery major medical facilities,\u201d such as a hospital, and the latest secure communication methods and defenses against bioweapons.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a shield,\u201d Mr. Trump said of the ballroom, which he added would be made out of \u201cimpenetrable steel, and also impenetrable glass.\u201d<\/p>\n Congressional funding for the security portions of the project are in doubt. Republicans have attempted to include $1 billion for security at the White House, including the ballroom project, in a filibuster-proof budget bill. But that provision has fallen afoul of Senate rules.<\/p>\n Even so, Mr. Trump said wealthy business donors would fund the construction of the ballroom.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a gift from me and from incredible, successful companies and patriots, and they put up close to $400 million,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In his second term, Mr. Trump has been pushing ahead at a breakneck pace to remake Washington in his own style.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump is in court fighting to close the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts<\/a>, which was renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center, for a major renovation. He has proposed building a 250-foot triumphal arch near Washington\u2019s border with Arlington, Va. He has proposed a large project to create a National Garden of American Heroes<\/a>. Next to that is a golf course<\/a> that Mr. Trump wants to make into a luxury destination. The president also said he was fixing up the water fountains in Washington.<\/p>\n Many of the projects, including the ballroom and the plans for a National Garden of Heroes, have grown in size and scale as Mr. Trump has become more interested in them. He has begun a renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool<\/a>, which is costing seven times more than the president originally said it would.<\/p>\n \u201cI got so into it \u2014 I\u2019ve upgraded it like you wouldn\u2019t believe,\u201d Mr. Trump said of his work on the pool. \u201cI\u2019m doing all the walkways outside. I\u2019m doing it properly. But it\u2019s a much bigger jump. But you see, it\u2019s happening now. It\u2019s going to be beautiful. It\u2019s going to be waterproof. It\u2019s going to be reflecting again.\u201d<\/p>\n