WASHINGTON — President Trump announced Monday that a granite helipad is being constructed on the White House South Lawn, saying the new landing surface is necessary to support a modern and more powerful fleet of presidential helicopters.
Construction crews were already on the job when Trump confirmed the project, working on the same South Lawn where UFC had recently set up a temporary arena for a cage fight marking the president’s 80th birthday. Trump said the project would be privately funded, putting its price tag at as much as $6 million.
“It’s got the seal of the White House on it in granite, in carved granite,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office appearance. “It’s really a beautiful thing.”
The president offered no specifics on how long construction would take. The helipad is the latest in a series of major renovation efforts Trump has undertaken to put his personal stamp on the White House.
While some of Trump’s previous White House construction projects have drawn on public funds despite early suggestions they would not, Trump said Sikorsky Aircraft — a subsidiary of defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin — would be covering the cost of the helipad.
When asked about the cost and timeline, Lockheed Martin issued a statement saying in part: “This specific contribution was made to the Trust for the National Mall, the National Park Service’s non-profit organization” and was “conducted in full accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”
In 2024, Sikorsky finished delivering a new fleet of helicopters for presidential transport. President Joe Biden became the first to fly aboard one of the modern VH-92A helicopters, using it to travel to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago — the same day the military announced Sikorsky had delivered the final aircraft in the 23-helicopter order.
However, Trump explained that the new choppers are far more powerful than the Vietnam War-era helicopters that have long served as Marine One, and that their power makes them too intense to land on the White House lawn without causing damage.
“It’s not that the grass gets discolored — it gets ripped out,” the president said.
The new aircraft have indeed seen limited use at the White House because their exhaust vents direct heat downward, scorching the South Lawn. The Marines and Sikorsky have spent years searching for a fix, meaning the new helicopters have largely sat unused at the executive mansion. A 2026 Marine Corps aviation plan noted that the older VH-3D helicopters will remain in service through the end of this year.
Trump recalled telling a group of military generals that building a helipad would resolve the problem. He said Sikorsky agreed to build and fully fund the pad because the company “felt a little bit guilty” that its new helicopter fleet was too powerful to land at the White House.
Trump also said he directed builders to “do a beauty” and pushed for granite rather than plain painted concrete. “You’re landing on granite, which is the strongest stone,” he said, adding that the finished pad could double as a venue for outdoor White House events such as news conferences. He also said the helipad would allow officials to “finally retire 45-year-old helicopters” that had been pressed into service as Marine One.
The helipad is just one of several changes Trump has made to the White House. Other projects include tearing up part of the Rose Garden to create a patio reminiscent of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, adding partisan plaques along the colonnade wall for a Presidential Walk of Fame, renovating the bathroom off the Lincoln Bedroom, redoing the Palm Room, installing new flagpoles on both the north and south lawns, and demolishing the entire East Wing to make room for a large ballroom.
While “Marine One” is a designation applied to any helicopter carrying the president, the most iconic version has been the specially modified VH-3D Sea King, which entered service in 1978. Efforts to replace it date back to the early 2000s, when President George W. Bush launched a modernization program that was eventually scrapped due to cost overruns during President Barack Obama’s administration. Obama restarted the effort, but technical problems delayed progress until May 2014, when the military finally awarded Sikorsky a contract to build the VH-92A Patriot — the helicopters that were ultimately delivered in 2024.
Later Monday, Trump spoke at a lunch held in the Rose Garden patio and revealed yet another renovation project: a restoration of the columns on the building’s north side. Scaffolding has already gone up, and Trump noted, “We’ve taken about 150 years of paint off of the columns,” adding that “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. “Because, frankly, it was treated very badly by a lot of presidents.”
The president did not say who would be paying for the column restoration work.
