Published by TrenBuzz.com | July 9, 2026 | LATEST NEWS
Key Points at a Glance – White House Columns
- Giant tarps featuring printed images of columns were draped over the White House North Portico on July 9, 2026, covering scaffolding that has surrounded the historic Ionic columns since late June.
- Workers have stripped approximately 150 years of paint from the exterior columns, according to Trump himself, who said the columns were “treated very badly by a lot of presidents.”
- No public cost figure has been released for the column project. The White House calls it “standard restoration work” involving stone repairs.
- A broader New York Times estimate placed all 18 of Trump’s Washington construction projects at a combined $1.2 billion.
- Fine Arts Commission chairman Rodney Mims Cook Jr. has championed replacing the Ionic columns with more ornate Corinthian columns. Trump posted a Corinthian column photo on Truth Social just before the tarps went up.
- The scaffolding was still visible during America’s 250th birthday celebrations July 4, adding to a growing list of unfinished Trump renovation projects that missed high-profile deadlines.
White House Columns Renovation: What Is Actually Being Done Behind the Tarps
The White House North Portico is covered with significant scaffolding, now covered by a drape, as workers rehabilitate the exterior columns at President Donald Trump’s request. Trump spent roughly six minutes inspecting the columns as his motorcade returned from Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum described seeing Trump react to the columns in real time. “You know, President Trump comes out to greet a world leader, he sees door dings and the pillars and says, ‘Look at all this stuff, it needs to be repaired.'”
That six-minute inspection on Memorial Day launched a project whose full scope and cost remain undisclosed to the American public.
The Corinthian Column Theory and Why the Internet Is Paying Attention
The timing attracted particular attention because it comes less than 24 hours after Trump’s Truth Social post highlighting Corinthian columns, a design style previously championed by Cook as a possible replacement for the White House’s existing columns.
The original columns are Ionic, a classical style used since the White House was built in 1792. Corinthian columns are more elaborate and ornate, associated with imperial grandeur rather than republican simplicity.
Whether the tarps are hiding a restoration or something more fundamental, only the contractors currently have the answer.
The Bigger Pattern: $1.2 Billion and Counting Across Washington
The column project is the latest in a blitz that includes the East Wing ballroom, a new South Lawn helipad rushed at $13 million to prepare for an unnamed state visitor, the botched Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool restoration that refilled with algae, and the ongoing Kennedy Center fights.
Construction crews also began work on a previously unannounced helipad on the White House’s South Lawn last week. Contractor records show the White House sped up construction on the $13 million project and added $875,000 to the bill in anticipation of an “upcoming state visit.”
Every one of these projects shares the same pattern: announced after the fact, priced without transparency, and finished on Trump’s personal timeline rather than any public procurement schedule.
🔗 [Also Read: “Trump Administration Reflecting Pool Repairs: Algae, $16 Million, and the Same Contractor Twice” | TrenBuzz.com]
🔗 [“Courts, Congress and a Ballroom: The White House East Wing Litigation That Will Not Go Away” | TrenBuzz.com]