Trump says he's building a White House helipad for a new, more powerful
Marine One
[July 07, 2026]
By WILL WEISSERT and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he's building
a granite helipad on the White House lawn, insisting that the landing
area is needed to accommodate new, more powerful presidential choppers.
Confirmation of the project came as construction crews had already begun
working on the helipad on the South Lawn, where the president had UFC
build a temporary arena for a cage fight celebrating his 80th birthday.
He said the project would be privately funded and estimated its cost at
up to $6 million.
“It’s got the seal of the White House on it in granite, in carved
granite,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "It’s really a
beautiful thing.”
The Republican president did not offer details on how long the work
would take. It is the latest major construction project he has overseen
in an effort to increasingly mold the White House in his own image.
The helipad will be able to handle new choppers, Trump says
Some of Trump's major White House construction projects have relied on
public money, even when the president initially suggested otherwise.
Still, Trump said Sikorsky Aircraft, a subsidiary of defense contracting
giant Lockheed Martin, would be paying for the helipad.
Asked about the cost of the project and a timeline for its completion,
Lockheed Martin responded with a statement reading in part: “This
specific contribution was made to the National Park Service” and
“conducted in full accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”
In 2024, Sikorsky completed a new fleet of helicopters for use as Marine
One, and President Joe Biden took the first flight aboard a modern
VH-92A Patriot helicopter on his way to the Democratic National
Convention in Chicago — the same day the military announced Sikorsky
delivered the last of the 23 new aircraft.
A Sikorsky spokesperson said Monday that the new helicopters deliver
“increased performance and reduced maintenance costs and time.”
But Trump said the newer aircraft were more powerful than Vietnam
War-era choppers that long had been used as Marine One, and the modern
ones were too potent to land on the White House lawn without damaging
the grass.
"It’s not that the grass gets discolored — it gets ripped out,” the
president said.
Indeed, the new helicopters have seen limited service because their
exhaust vents aim heat downward, scorching the White House South Lawn.
The Marines and Sikorsky have spent years trying to find a solution to
the problem, which has meant that the new helicopters haven't been used
at the White House. Trump recalled telling a group of gathered military
generals that a White House helipad would solve those problems.
The president said Sikorsky was building the helipad and paying the
"full cost” because they “felt a little bit guilty” that the new fleet
of helicopters was too powerful to land at the White House.
Trump also said he told builders to “do a beauty” and suggested using
granite rather than simply laying concrete and painting it white.
[to top of second column]
|
President Donald Trump speaks alongside the New York Stock Exchange
bell at a lunch in the White House Rose Garden, Monday, July 6,
2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
“You’re landing on granite, which is the strongest stone,” the
president said, noting that the completed landing pad could also be
used for other events, like outdoor White House news conferences. He
added that the helipad will allow officials to “finally retire
45-year-old helicopters” that had been used as Marine One.
Trump's other projects to remake the White House include tearing up
part of the Rose Garden for a patio space reminiscent of his Mar-a-Lago
estate in Florida and affixing partisan plaques to the wall of the
colonnade for a Presidential Walk of Fame.
Trump also had crews redo the bathroom attached to the Lincoln
Bedroom and renovate the Palm Room, place new flagpoles on the north
and south lawns and demolish the entire East Wing for a sprawling
ballroom.
Efforts to improve presidential helicopters go back decades
While the term “Marine One” is applied to a variety of helicopter
models that transport presidents, the most iconic and longest
serving helicopter to take on the mission is the specially modified
VH-3D Sea King helicopter that first entered service in 1978.
In the early 2000s, President George W. Bush, a Republican, began an
effort to modernize the helicopter fleet, but the program ran into
cost overruns, leading it to be scrapped by President Barack Obama's
administration.
Obama, a Democrat, restarted the program, but new technical issues
emerged, and it wasn’t until May 2014 that the military finally
awarded Sikorsky a contract to build the next presidential
helicopter -- the VH-92A Patriot, which were the aircraft delivered
in 2024.
A Marine Corps spokesman, Capt. Jacob M. Sugg, declined to comment
on matters pertaining to the White House property. But he said the
Marine One squadron currently consists of nine Sikorsky VH-3D Sea
Kings that were first deployed in the 1970s, as well as six Sikorsky
VH-60Ns deployed in the late 1980s and 10 of the newer VH-92A
Patriots.
Trump says ‘a lot of love is being put into the White House’
Later Monday, Trump addressed a lunch in the Rose Garden patio space
and detailed yet another White House construction project, this one
to revamp the columns on the building's north side.
Crews have erected scaffolding and Trump said, “We’ve taken about
150 years of paint off of the columns," noting, “If you don’t strip
the paint off, it gets worse and worse and worse.”
“A lot of love is being put into the White House,” Trump said.
He didn't say who would be covering the cost of the column work.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
