Trump flaunts White House revamp, AI push​

Washington, March 11 (IANS) President Donald Trump used an Oval Office interview with the All-In Podcast to showcase his redesign of the White House, defend his changes to the Rose Garden, announce plans for a new ballroom, and pivot quickly to a broader pitch on tariffs, artificial intelligence, and manufacturing.​

Calling it the “new and improved Oval Office,” Trump said he had personally selected paintings now hanging in the room, many of them drawn from White House vaults. ​

“I picked them all,” he said, as he pointed to portraits of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan.

Trump said some of the works had remained in storage for decades. “They were in the vaults for many — over 100 years,” he said. ​

He also said his team had added “a lot of 24 karat gold” around the fireplace and upgraded worn interiors, including replacing older tile flooring with “big slabs of white marble.”​

The President also defended changes to the Rose Garden, saying the earlier grassy layout was impractical for events and press appearances. “We put beautiful stone, white stone, down, and now we can have all sorts of things,” he said. ​

Referring to a recent visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump said the old setup created problems during a press conference because “the women with their high heels were — it was not a pretty picture. It was wet.”​

Prime Minister Modi visited the White House in February 2025, in the first 30 days of his second term. The two leaders had a joint press conference in the Rose Garden in June 2017, during Trump’s first term.​

“For 150 years, they wanted a ballroom at the White House,” he said, arguing that major state events should no longer have to rely on tents on the lawn. Asked when construction would begin, he replied: “A couple of years. Take a couple of — starting in about two weeks.”​

On economics, Trump said the United States was benefiting from unprecedented tariff revenue. “We’re taking in hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of tariffs,” he said. “The money is coming in at levels that nobody ever thought possible.”​

He linked that claim to a broader case for his economic agenda, saying that AI investment, domestic manufacturing, and energy expansion were driving growth. “We have a country that’s doing really well, and leading in AI is an honour,” Trump said. He added that data and AI infrastructure developers were being allowed to build their own power facilities because “you can’t go into the old grid.”​

Trump also said auto and chip manufacturing were returning to the United States because companies “don’t want to pay tariffs.” ​

Referring to large-scale industrial investment, he said: “When these plants start opening, you know, we have a lot of construction jobs building. But when these plants that you guys are so in love with start opening, nobody’s ever seen plants like this.”​

White House expansion ideas are not new, but structural changes to the executive mansion and its grounds have often drawn close public scrutiny because of the building’s historical and political significance. ​

Trump’s remarks blended that visual renovation pitch with his broader effort to frame tariffs, energy, and AI as central to his second-term economic message.

–IANS

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