What did Donald Trump do today?

He announced yet another White House "renovation."

Trump announced today his latest White House building project: a new helipad. The usual helicopter landing zone on the South Lawn is temporarily unavailable due to the stage and bleachers Trump installed for his UFC cage match. (Trump is an investor in UFC and used taxpayer funds to put on the exhibition.) 

 

The only other justification the White House offered for the new helipad, which is expected to cost $13 million, is that modern helicopters might occasionally damage the grass. (Premium sod in the DC metro area costs about $2 per square foot, including delivery and installation.)

Trump also announced that Sikorsky, the manufacturer of the class of helicopters traditionally used for this purpose, was "donating" $5 million to the project. This echoes other "donations" that companies with hundreds of billions of dollars in government contracts have made to other Trump vanity projects, like the "military top secret ballroom" he plans to build on the ruins of the East Wing. 

Sikorsky, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, has billions of dollars in government contracts that Trump has the ability to void or pause.

There are already signs that Trump is showing the same kinds of hyperfocus on this latest White House renovation that he's previously reserved for the renovation of the already freshly-renovated Kennedy Center (now canceled), his ill-fated ballroom and triumphal arch, and the addition of cheap stick-on gold-colored plastic appliqué and mall-style signage to the Oval Office. The Washington Post shared these details:

In the latest example of Trump’s deep involvement in efforts to reshape the White House and its grounds, the president was personally engaged in several aspects of the helipad project, from price negotiations to design minutiae, according to emails exchanged between Clark and the White House in December.

Trump offered input on how far to extend the driveway and requested adding a slight slope to the pavers to facilitate better drainage, according to emailed notes from a Dec. 19 meeting with the president.

“POTUS wants to look at the option of a curved curb for the drive,” the email noted. 

The White House did not offer any clarification on whether Trump's curved curb suggestion was adopted.
 

Why does this matter?

• Obsession with pet projects, to the exclusion of more important things, is not a sign of good cognitive function in the very elderly. 

• It's cheaper for taxpayers if government contractors are bidding for the actual value of their work, not buying goodwill from the president at pennies on the dollar.  
  
  
• POTUS has more important things to worry about than the detailing on the pavers around a helipad.