The Washington Post reported, based on internal documents, that the administration of US President Donald Trump plans to spend no less than $900 million on construction and development projects within the White House campus, a number that greatly exceeds previously circulated estimates.
According to the newspaper, it is expected that part of the funding for these projects will come from government sources, while it indicated that the administration did not go to Congress with a direct request for funding, but rather collected funds from various government agencies along with contributions from private donors.
The documents indicated that this money was transferred to an account that is usually used to finance regular maintenance of the president’s residence, the expenses of which in normal circumstances amount to a few million dollars.
According to the planning documents on which the report was based, the administration intends to use the funds in this account to finance modernization and development projects scheduled within the White House campus.
Prominent among these projects is the construction of a “ceremony hall,” as the Washington Post had previously reported that the expected cost of the project alone had risen to about $600 million.
Trump had confirmed in previous statements that the project represented an “old dream” for him, and that its implementation would not cost the public treasury money, pointing to the reliance on private contributions to finance it.
However, documents published by the newspaper showed, according to the report, that about $307 million of the total planned expenditures will come from federal sources.
The new figures constitute a major jump in the volume of spending related to development work within the White House, especially with the total value of the projects mentioned in the documents reaching no less than $900 million.
The history of the White House dates back to the late 18th century, as its construction began in 1792 according to the design of engineer James Hoban, after the first US president, George Washington, chose its location.
The building was completed in 1800, becoming the headquarters of the American Presidency, before the building was exposed to a fire in 1814, which required extensive restoration work between 1815 and 1817. Since then, the White House has undergone multiple stages of restoration and modernization to preserve the building and its facilities and adapt them to the work requirements of the American presidency.
