Two-Thirds of Americans Give Trump’s Washington Renovations a Thumbs Down

Donald Trump likes to call himself the Builder-in-Chief and often seems more focused on his ongoing Washington, D.C., renovations than, say, addressing hoaxes like affordability or dealing with that boring war he started with Iran. From tearing down the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom, to repainting the bottom of the reflecting pool Patriotic Blue, to his proposed 250-foot triumphal arch, it’s easy to get the impression that he’d rather spend his time making Washington gaudy than making America great.

According to a new poll out today from the Washington Post/Ipsos, the American people aren’t impressed. Only 31% said they were “enthusiastic” or “satisfied,” compared to 65% who were “dissatisfied” or “upset.” Three times as many respondents said they were upset than those actually enthusiastic about Trump’s projects, something that seemed evident in the attendance of his failed Great American State Fair with its empty lawns and Temu Arch.

When Trump first announced his desire for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, he claimed it would cost $200 million, none of those funds would come from American taxpayers, and that it wouldn’t touch the East Wing. He then bulldozed the East Wing, offered a no-bid contract to Clark Construction who projected the total at $600 million, and taxpayers will foot more than half the bill. The president, of course, sums that all up by still claiming the project is on-time and under-budget because words are meaningless.

The Reflecting Pool was its own debacle after Trump gave us a glimpse of his vision with a cursed AI image:

President Trump shared an AI image on Truth Social Friday night of him, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum wading in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. pic.twitter.com/OE1maLjMcI

— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 2, 2026

Again, he gave the no-contract bid to a buddy for less than $2 million, but the price ballooned to $16 million even quicker than the water turned green with algae. His administration’s solution was to pour hydrogen peroxide in it, arrest tourists for touching the water, and then drain it all and refill it again. And now it’s somehow no longer blue? The hell?

No work has begun, meanwhile, on the United States Triumphal Arch, a 250-foot monstrosity he’d love to be known as the Arc de Trump, but the project received preliminary approval last month.

Among independent voters, the disapproval rating for these three projects rises to 73 percent. Only 26% of the poll’s 2,600 respondents said they believed Trump’s goal was to “make Washington more beautiful,” while others had answers like “to glorify himself” or “to enrich himself/family/friends.”

We have our own idea how to make Washington more beautiful, but we’ll have to wait another two and a half years to implement it.