Are you having trouble keeping track of all of the ways that President Donald Trump is desecrating Washington, D.C., with his signature blend of shoddiness, cronyism, bad taste, and grift?
There are many, so we should all forgive ourselves for not catching his latest White House project: a new helipad.
Of course, like most things with this administration, we only learned about this by accident when people saw construction crews on the South Lawn.
Not to sound too much like “kids these days,” but listen, kids: There was once a time when adding something like a helipad to the White House would have been discussed well in advance.
The contracting process would have been transparent and lengthy enough to allow for actual bidders, not handpicked “donors,” we would know how much it was really going to cost, there would be construction permits, the normal district preservation groups would have weighed in—you get the picture.
Instead, we’ve got this.
This little project is ostensibly fully funded by a “donation” from Lockheed Martin. Did I mention that this is also not how things were when the government wasn’t run by having private companies bribe the president to cover the construction costs for his pet projects?
The donation is reportedly for $5 million, which will apparently cover the costs. But we watched the Bribe Palace Ballroom balloon from $200 million to $400 million to $600 million to who knows how much. It also went from being totally donor-funded to costing taxpayers at least $500 million via a secret no-bid contract.
There’s no reason whatsoever to believe that $5 million is anything but a number Trump picked out of the air, a nice round sum.
Lockheed is no stranger to bribing Trump. It also reportedly gave $10 million to Trump’s ballroom, which is a drop in the bucket given it snagged $33.4 billion in federal contracts in 2025 alone. Pretty solid rate of return, huh?
The new helipad is “intended to address a long-running problem,” per the Washington Post.
What terrible problem, you ask? It seems the newish Marine One helicopters can burn the White House grass on the South Lawn.
This tender loving care for the South Lawn is pretty rich coming from the man who destroyed it just a few weeks ago for his little UFC birthday bash.
And not to belabor the point, but even if the problem of scorched grass required some sort of speedy government fix, there’s no reason to keep it secret or to fund it with a bribe.
Still, in the unhinged world of whatever is going on at the Washington Post under Jeff Bezos, it’s both relevant and important that Trump … likes helicopters?
“Trump also has been an avid helicopter user for much of his professional life, dating back to his time as a real estate magnate when he relied on a Trump-branded helicopter,” it reported.
Oh, okay, seems fine then.
The man’s gotta have his helicopter pad! In secret! Via bribes!
Who’s up for a ride on the now fully operational Qatar Force One? Maybe another country can send Trump a new Marine One as well? That’s just how things are done these days.
Published with permission of Daily Kos
