President Donald Trump is plotting yet another overhaul of the White House grounds — this time digging up the storied South Lawn to install a permanent helipad, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Sunday night.
The helipad would mark the latest in a dizzying string of renovations Trump has imposed on the people's house since returning to power. He's already paved over the Rose Garden, slapped a black granite walkway along the West Wing Colonnade, redesigned the Oval Office, planted two massive flagpoles on the grounds, and demolished the entire East Wing to clear room for his 90,000-square-foot ballroom.
Now the South Lawn is on the chopping block.
The official justification: the military's powerful new VH-92A Patriot helicopter — the replacement for the decades-old VH-3D Sea King that's flown every president since Gerald Ford — is too much for the grass to handle.
"The exhaust on the new helicopters can burn up the ground, especially in hot and dry conditions," the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the plans. The new chopper can also haul 6,200 pounds more than its predecessor.
Officials have known about the problem for years. A 2018 Government Accountability Office report flagged that the VH-92A's engines and auxiliary power unit "could damage the lawn." Rather than modify the aircraft, Trump — a former real estate developer who has been "involved in every detail" of his construction projects — is opting to rip up the lawn.
Trump has reportedly been workshopping the helipad's design with associates.
The move is already raising eyebrows for reasons that go well beyond turf.
The South Lawn is one of the most photographed patches of grass on Earth — the backdrop for Easter Egg Rolls, state arrivals, and the iconic Marine One liftoff shot. Paving part of it over hands critics fresh ammunition in their argument that Trump is treating a national landmark like a personal construction site.
And it's not just Washington. Trump is also expected to install a helipad at his Mar-a-Lago club this summer while the resort is closed for the season. The Palm Beach town council is now weighing a request — pushed by the U.S. Secret Service — to let that helipad stay put even after Trump leaves office, "for as long as a protectee resides there."
Translation: a piece of taxpayer-backed infrastructure could permanently boost the value of Trump's private club.
The White House did not respond to the Journal's request for comment.
The helipad fight comes as the Marine Corps has been forced to keep its aging VH-3D fleet flying well past its planned retirement date because the new Patriot can't safely land on the South Lawn. The Corps had planned to mothball the VH-3D this year. Now it'll keep flying through at least 2027.
A Marine Corps spokesman told the Journal the full transition to the VH-92A will be "an event-driven goal, not a time-driven one."
Despite making its splashy debut at Trump's 2019 Fourth of July military parade, the VH-92A didn't actually fly a sitting president until August 2024, when it ferried then-President Joe Biden in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. It has flown Trump several times outside Washington — but neither president has taken it to or from the South Lawn.
Soon, thanks to a fresh slab of pavement, Trump might.
