President Donald Trump is unwavering in his mission to transform Washington, D.C. to his liking.
The politician, 80, has been bulldozing buildings, outfitting the White House in gold, renovating memorials, and more.
His agenda seems unnecessary and limitless, including his access to government funds and partners with deep pockets. But are his efforts a smokescreen to conceal his trail of damage?
Trump’s latest rambling Oval Office rant went off the rails, as critics pointed to his growing list of vanity projects.
A reporter began, “The renaissance of the city that you’ve been able to do in 18 months is incredible,” only to be interrupted by Trump.
The president wanted to amplify the compliment.
He repeated the praise, declaring, “It’s clean, it’s safe, and you haven’t seen anything yet,” while blaming “vandals” for damaging Washington’s parks and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
His next remark was even more bizarre but offered insight into his reasoning for replacing the grass.
“We’re replacing all of the grass that hasn’t been replaced in the fields,” he rambled. “You know, grass is like humans. Uh, it has a life. This grass hasn’t been changed in 100 years.”
His tally of remodels in Washington was a noted 78. A skeptic still wondered, “Is there even any grass left at the White House?”
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“Look at the grass in front of the White House being all replaced with the top stuff, the parks all being replaced, starts very soon actually. We’ll do one at a time. It’s about 700 acres of parks,” Trump explained.
His administration destroyed a large patch of grass on the South Lawn for Trump’s UFC 250 birthday bash and the construction of a new marble helipad.
According to Trump, the repair won’t cost taxpayers a dime. “He’s found a sod supplier who will kick cash back to him from a no bid contract,” stated one viewer.
“Scotts Miracle-Gro, they’re donating it,” Trump shared. “I gotta give them a plug ‘cause they did the White House for free. Sir, a friend of mine, he’s terrific. ‘We’d like to give you new grass at the White House.’ I said, ‘I’ll take it. How much?’ He said, ‘Free.’”
Yet one person connected the dots about the contractors Trump hired since his Reflecting Pool fiasco blew up.
“If his grass friend is as incompetent as his pool guy,” a critic quipped. “It’ll be brown and dying within a week… leaving only some very expensive weeds.”
Trump awarded a $14 million no-bid contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings to resurface the reflecting pool blue. Workers filled the basin, and the paint began peeling days later.
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Yet the president claims he or his administration has “tapes, moving cameras” of people cutting the paint with box knives as the DOJ moves to dismiss their case against an Olympian. A response read, “He is losing his mind, but then again he never had one.”
The president blamed vandals and unsuccessfully pursued cases against alleged culprits, including Olympic canoeist David Hearn.
“I didn’t remove, tear, rip, break or destroy any of it,” Hearn told NBC News. “The condition of the Reflecting Pool was the same after I stepped away from the water as it was before I got there.”
Trump insisted someone cut the 300-foot liner with a knife or box cutter. But now the case just may be dismissed following a push from U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro.
Someone commented, “He’s still hurting from those numbers that were burned into the grass.”
The showman defended his replacement grass by revisiting the “86 47” message he discovered days before his birthday on June 14.
Someone carved the message into the National Mall’s grass near the White House, prompting officials to call it “massive vandalism.”
“You know, nobody talks about the grass. They have helicopter pictures of what they did,” Trump vented to reporters.
He then seemed to forget what he was saying and sought help from reporters in the room.
“Wasn’t it ’87’ right? Do you know what they did, right? Did you see what they did? Did you see what they wrote? What did they write?” Trump asked.
A massive anti-Trump '8647' message appeared to have been scrawled into the grass on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., just blocks from the White House.
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) June 11, 2026
The U.S. Department of the Interior on Thursday said it is now investigating the "deranged vandalism."
"Any threat… pic.twitter.com/qIAHyEpXz0
A voice in the room replied, “’87’—or, sorry, ‘8647.’”
“That’s right. ‘8647.’ So it’s ‘8647.’ They didn’t do ’45.’ At least they left ’45.’ But they wrote massive letters on the grass: ‘8647.’ Nobody talked about that,” Trump continued.
“That was vandalism, too. We had to replace all that grass. It was a tremendous amount of grass because when you hit it with this poison, it’s acid. It kills the grass. You can’t even clean it.”
He added, “We had to replace all that grass. It was a tremendous amount of grass because when you hit it with this poison, this acid, it kills the grass.”
Some speculators contended the damage was a call for his removal from office.
Investigators have not arrested anyone in connection with the destruction, and Trump has not produced evidence supporting his vandalism claims.
