Trump Ramps Up Helipad Construction—and Its Price Tag

President Donald Trump has thought of yet another useless White House renovation to drain taxpayer dollars—and his rush to show off to world leaders is only making things more expensive.

The Trump administration sped up construction of a new helipad on the White House’s South Lawn, adding $875,000 to the price tag in the process, according to the records from Clark Construction obtained by The Washington Post.

The project to install the helipad, renovate the White House’s South Portico, and re-top the driveway with white stone already cost a whopping $13 million.

The contractor’s documents showed that the company received a last-minute demand to complete construction by September 17, in anticipation of an “upcoming state visit.” The request was made just days after Trump invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit the White House on September 24.

This isn’t the first time that the budget for one of the president’s renovations has exploded. Trump originally claimed that his White House ballroom project would only cost $200 million, but that number later ballooned to $300 million, and then $400 million after he decided to tack on extra construction. Last month, a bombshell report revealed that taxpayers would actually be responsible for half of a $600 million price tag.

Speaking to reporters at the White House Monday, Trump announced that Sikorsky, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin that builds Marine One helicopters, would cover the cost of a $5 million or $6 million helipad, complete with a White House seal carved out of granite.

It’s not clear who’s picking up the rest of Trump’s multimillion-dollar tab—but I have a sneaking suspicion it will be the same people who he wants to pay for his gaudy ballroom: American taxpayers.

President Trump’s intervention to lift the red card ban on U.S. Men’s National Team soccer player Folarin Balogun is breaking the integrity of the World Cup tournament. 

Now the French national team has appealed to FIFA, the soccer governing body, to rescind Michael Olise’s yellow card, which he received during the match with Paraguay on Saturday. Olise was penalized for a tackle for contact with Paraguyan Matias Galarza’s face, but replays showed Olise only held Galarza’s shirt.   

A yellow card doesn’t directly translate into a suspension like a red card, but France evidently feels that overturning Balogun’s suspension has opened the door. It follows British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also intervening with FIFA to prevent the start time for England’s match against Mexico being moved up over weather concerns, with England believing that they wouldn’t have enough time to train for high-altitude conditions at Mexico’s national stadium, Estadio Azeteca. 

British Attorney General Richard Hermer also may intervene with FIFA to overturn England player Jarrell Quansah’s red card, issued Sunday versus Mexico, The Telegraph reports. FIFA, meanwhile, denied an appeal from Belgium Monday challenging the decision to lift Balogun’s red card.

The red card came after Balogun awkwardly stepped on Bosnian defender Tarik Muharemović’s ankle during the match on Wednesday. Hours after the game ended, Trump called up FIFA President Gianni Infantino to complain about the decision, and on Sunday, FIFA’s disciplinary committee announced it was overturning Balogun’s suspension, leaving him free to join the U.S.-Belgium game Monday.

It’s the first time a red card has been rescinded in this manner since 1962, and Trump enlisted the full force of the U.S. government to get the foul overturned, with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and White House World Cup task force director Andrew Giuliani quickly engaging lawyers to help U.S. Soccer put together an appeal. 

On Monday in the White House, Trump openly bragged to reporters about his role in getting the suspension overturned, noting that he called Infantino himself, and attacking the match referee’s credibility. 

“He didn’t do anything wrong. He’s our best player, or one of our best players … and [the referee] gave him a red card. Then I started hearing that means he can’t play in the next game.… When they take your best player … and they say you can’t play? That’s very unfair,” Trump said. “So yes, I asked for a review by FIFA.… I’m the one that got them to [rescind the suspension]. It was not Biden. Biden was asleep.”

Correct call or not, this chain of events has ruined the credibility of FIFA and this tournament. Infantino denied any kind of wrongdoing in a statement Monday, claiming that the FIFA Disciplinary Committee is an independent body. 

“Yes, I regularly discuss matters related to the FIFA World Cup with the President of the United States, and on this matter, I did receive a call from President Donald Trump, just as I receive calls from heads of state, government officials, football stakeholders and business executives from around the world on many different issues,” Infantino said. “During our conversation, I explained that there was an ongoing legal process involving FIFA’s independent judicial bodies and that the case would be decided in due course by the competent bodies. That is how FIFA’s system works, and it is a principle that I will always uphold.” 

Infantino’s predecessor, Sepp Blatter, himself banned from soccer activities over corruption allegations, ironically called out Infantino’s decision to overturn the red card in a post on X early Monday morning. 

“Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies. If a U.S. President intervenes with the FIFA President—and a player is suddenly cleared before a World Cup knockout match—the question is unavoidable: Quo vadis, FIFA? Football must never become a playground for political power. #FIFA #WorldCup #GianniInfantino #DonaldTrump,” Blatter posted. 

President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim.

The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.

The innocent, celebratory clip—orignally posted on X in June by the right-wing “End Wokeness” account—was re-upped by Trump, who also posted the account’s original caption: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”

The post was then seized on by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters all over again, as Trump’s comment section was full of calls to deport the children and ban hijabs.

This post is Islamophobic, weird, and creepy. It should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.

This comes just a week after a Kentucky church’s vacation Bible school came under fire for holding a violent mock execution of an immigrant in front of dozens of children. But Trump takes more issue with Muslim kindergarteners graduating.

Donald Trump announced Monday that a slew of tech companies are expected to contribute to his eponymously named childhood investment accounts. But when asked to elaborate on the financial backing behind Trump Accounts, the president suddenly trailed off into a lengthy rant about his popularity on TikTok.

“On the Trump accounts—the SpaceX president has said that she is going to donate shares to the Trump accounts,” said Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger, referring to Gwynne Shotwell. “Have you spoken at all with Elon Musk about further share donations as well as other corporate—about share donations?”

“I’m like a cheerleader for geniuses,” Trump started before almost immediately switching the topic. “Now there’s a thing called TikTok, have you heard of it?”

Trump recalled a segment he had seen recently on Fox Business’s Mornings With Maria. “It was announced about two days ago, the new numbers just came out. Do you know who the number one person on TikTok is by far? Trump. Me.

“I’m number one. Like Taylor Swift was number 11. I’m number one, by far,” Trump repeated.

The president then suggested that the social media company’s influence couldn’t be too dangerous, since he was such a hot topic on the platform.

“Maybe they’re bad, maybe they’re not,” Trump said. “I know one thing: Great American people, tremendous businesspeople and companies, bought it.

“American companies, great ones, own our TikTok, and it’s very influential, but I’m number one by a lot,” he continued. “I think it helped me win the election in a landslide, if I tell you the truth.”

Trump tried and failed to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app during his first term in the White House. At the time, the White House said there were national security concerns associated with allowing TikTok to operate without U.S. intervention, claiming that the social media platform had created a back door for the Chinese government to access American data.

Congress passed a bipartisan ban on TikTok in 2024, yet American access to the app has prevailed due to negotiations that transferred domestic control of TikTok’s U.S. business to American investors. The principal investors in TikTok’s U.S. operations are Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, who are responsible for data protection and content moderation within national boundaries.

President Trump wants Vice President JD Vance to succeed him. 

Axios reports that the president is happy with how Vance has handled his position, from TV appearances to public remarks, and consistently talks up the former Ohio senator to his inner circle to the detriment of another prospective heir, Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

“POTUS isn’t asking, ‘JD or Marco?’ anymore,” an unnamed source told the publication. “He’s no longer asking, ‘How’s JD doing?’ He’s now saying, ‘JD looks great, right?’”

A senior Trump adviser told Axios that “JD is earning it, and Trump sees it,” adding that Rubio “wasn’t planning to run [for president in 2028] anyway, and he’d be even less likely to do so now.”

A pivotal event for Trump’s positive opinion of Vance came after he worked with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to reach a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with Iran, which has brought momentary peace. Vance benefited from positive media attention over his role in the negotiations while at the same time beginning a media tour to promote his new book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.

Vance’s 33 TV appearances impressed Trump, who has a fixation with the medium, and even though Trump hates many of the shows on which Vance appeared, particularly ABC’s The View, he was impressed with the video clips circulating from those appearances. 

Vance has raised $70 million for the Republican National Committee, and he’d rely on the organization if he ends up running for president. He’s still very unpopular with the American people, just like Trump, but is almost as popular among Republicans as the president, with a 62 percent favorability rating as opposed to Trump’s 65 percent. Early 2028 polls also have him leading the Republican field nationally and in pivotal states like New Hampshire.  

Still, pro-Israel conservatives have soured on Vance in recent months after he criticized the country’s leaders for denouncing the MOU with Iran, and on Saturday, the head of the conservative, pro-business Club for Growth, David McIntosh, said on X that Vance didn’t understand the importance of free markets.

Even if he overcomes all of that to get the 2028 Republican nomination for president, Vance faces an uphill battle to take Trump’s place in the White House. His book has been poorly received and reviewed, and Trump has saddled him and the Republican Party with record unpopularity with everyone who isn’t in the MAGA faithful. As 2028 approaches, it will be interesting to see if Vance tries to attach himself to Trump, or tries to create some distance, to better his own political prospects.