WASHINGTON (AP) — With Nationwide Guard troops within the streets and federal brokers on the door of his former adviser, President Donald Trump spent a heavy dose of his Friday channeling his inside vacationer and reliving his bygone days as a sports activities crew proprietor and development mogul.
He stopped by a present store close to the White Home, visited the Kennedy Middle that he now chairs and returned to his more and more gilded Oval Workplace to trumpet the U.S. cohosting subsequent yr’s World Cup.
“We have a lot of fun,” Trump mentioned. “We’re fixing up the whole world.”
The president’s stops across the metropolis got here because the nation’s capital is more and more on edge amid Trump’s deployment of the Nationwide Guard and federalization of Washington’s police drive in an effort to higher curb crime.
Simply earlier than he left the White Home, officers introduced there had been 76 arrests citywide the earlier night as a part of the crackdown. The Pentagon additionally mentioned Nationwide Guard troops patrolling the streets of D.C. would quickly begin carrying weapons.
“We are going to make D.C. totally safe. When people come from Iowa, Indiana, all of the beautiful places, and they come, they’re not going to go home in a body bag,” Trump mentioned after visiting the Individuals’s Home exhibit and its reward store. “They’re not going home in a coffin, and it’s very safe right now.”
With the crackdown now coming into its third week, nonetheless, many Washington residents and guests don’t really feel as protected because the president suggests, with persisting issues that the White Home is amplifying racist narratives about city crime and tearing down homeless camps the place probably the most susceptible dwell.
Trump has shrugged off criticisms and declared, when requested in regards to the FBI looking the house and workplace of his former nationwide safety adviser John Bolton, “I’m actually the chief law enforcement officer.” Nonetheless, he spent way more time wanting and appearing like a president relishing the components of the job that make him happiest.
On the Kennedy Middle, Trump’s actions Friday weren’t public, however he instructed reporters he’d showcase the marble that could be used to refurbish the constructing — together with different deliberate renovations, together with change the paint on its signature columns from gold to white.
Trump has begun often joking about renaming it the Trump Kennedy Middle however deadpanned Friday: “We’re not prepared to do that quite yet. Maybe in a week or so.”
The president additionally mentioned he’ll be main but extra White Home renovations — this time on the lavatory hooked up to the enduring Lincoln Bed room. It final underwent renovations in 2005.
“We’ll be doing the Lincoln Bathroom which was Art Deco,” Trump mentioned, including, “We’re making it actually incredible.”
The president even floated the concept of refurbishing the sprawling Previous Government Workplace Constructing on the White Home grounds, saying it was “such a beautiful building, but it doesn’t look it.”
Trump has already made in depth adjustments to the White Home, redoing the Oval Workplace so as to add gold decor, putting in patio seating with exterior audio system across the Rose Backyard, erecting two towering flagpoles on its garden and promising to construct a ballroom.
Later within the day, Trump was joined within the Oval Workplace by FIFA President Gianni Infantino to announce that the Kennedy Middle would host the draw for the 2026 World Cup, which might be performed within the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The previous proprietor of the New Jersey Generals of the USFL, Trump has been closely selling sporting occasions that can happen throughout his second time period, together with the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“I just left the Kennedy Center. We’re spending a lot of money wisely and making it really beautiful,” Trump mentioned through the occasion with Infantino. “It’s going to be beautiful again. It’s like Washington, D.C.”
