Trump defends his White House renovations: I made it beautiful

WASHINGTON — President Trump defended his White House renovations during a time of economic turmoil as necessary for keeping the 233-year old building upright, claiming in a new interview that the executive mansion was “actually dangerous.”“It was just a disgraceful dump.The doors were falling off.

The locks were broken.And I said, ‘I got to fix it.’ And I do that better than anybody else,” the president told Time magazine of his work.Trump also told his interviewers that the Secret Service wanted to tear down the Oval Office, although he didn’t explain why.“I see the Secret Service looking, and I say, ‘What are you guys looking at?’ ‘Sir, we think the Oval Office should be taken down, and we’ll build a new one, sir.’ I said, ‘My a–, you can’t build a new one.

This is a special place,’” he recounted.Trump further revealed he’s been asking White House chief of staff Susie Wiles about the possibility of making the presidential office a national historic landmark. The president repeatedly defended his actions during the 75-minute interview, at one point having an aide fetch old photos of the White House so he could point out where it needed to be repaired.“The place was in terrible shape.I made it beautiful,” he said.The Oval Office is one of many areas of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that Trump has remade to his liking.

The presidential office has been gilded in gold and the walls covered in painted portraits.The president also turned the Rose Garden into a replica of the patio at Mar-a-Lago, complete with a concrete floor and tables with yellow umbrellas, where he holds regular dinners with supporters in the “Rose Garden Club.” The colonnade surrounding the garden was remade into the Presidential Walk of Fame, featuring portraits of 44 of Trump’s predecessors and an autopen.In the most ambitious and controversial project, the president tore down the East Wing to replace it with a 90,000 square foot ballroom.

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