Trump visits a DC gift shop and the Kennedy Center during military crackdown
WASHINGTON (AP) — With National Guard troops in the streets and federal agents at the door of his former adviser, President Donald Trump spent a heavy dose of his Friday channeling his inner tourist and reliving his bygone days as a sports team owner and construction mogul.
He stopped by a gift shop near the White House, visited the Kennedy Center that he now chairs and returned to his increasingly gilded Oval Office to trumpet the U.S. cohosting next year’s World Cup.
“We have a lot of fun,” Trump said. “We’re fixing up the whole world.”
The president’s stops around the city came as the nation’s capital is increasingly on edge amid Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and federalization of Washington’s police force in an effort to better curb crime.
Just before he left the White House, officials announced there had been 76 arrests citywide the previous evening as part of the crackdown. The Pentagon also said National Guard troops patrolling the streets of D.C. would soon start carrying weapons.
“We are going to make D.C. totally safe. When people come from Iowa, Indiana, all of the beautiful places, and they come, they’re not going to go home in a body bag,” Trump said after visiting the People’s House exhibit and its gift shop. “They’re not going home in a coffin, and it’s very safe right now.”
With the crackdown now entering its third week, however, many Washington residents and visitors don’t feel as safe as the president suggests, with persisting concerns that the White House is amplifying racist narratives about urban crime and tearing down homeless camps where the most vulnerable live.
Trump has shrugged off criticisms and declared, when asked about the FBI searching the home and office of his former national security adviser John Bolton, “I’m actually the chief law enforcement officer.” Still, he spent far more time looking and acting like a president relishing the parts of the job that make him happiest.
At the Kennedy Center, Trump’s activities Friday weren’t public, but he told reporters he’d show off the marble that might be used to refurbish the building — along with other planned renovations, including change the paint on its signature columns from gold to white.
Trump has begun frequently joking about renaming it the Trump Kennedy Center but deadpanned Friday: “We’re not prepared to do that quite yet. Maybe in a week or so.”
The president also said he’ll be leading yet more White House renovations — this time on the bathroom attached to the iconic Lincoln Bedroom. It last underwent renovations in 2005.
“We’ll be doing the Lincoln Bathroom which was Art Deco,” Trump said, adding, “We’re making it actually incredible.”
The president even floated the idea of refurbishing the sprawling Old Executive Office Building on the White House grounds, saying it was “such a beautiful building, but it doesn’t look it.”
Trump has already made extensive changes to the White House, redoing the Oval Office to add gold decor, installing patio seating with external speakers around the Rose Garden, erecting two towering flagpoles on its lawn and promising to build a ballroom.
Later in the day, Trump was joined in the Oval Office by FIFA President Gianni Infantino to announce that the Kennedy Center would host the draw for the 2026 World Cup, which will be played in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The former owner of the New Jersey Generals of the USFL, Trump has been heavily promoting sporting events that will take place during his second term, including the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“I just left the Kennedy Center. We’re spending a lot of money wisely and making it really beautiful,” Trump said during the event with Infantino. “It’s going to be beautiful again. It’s like Washington, D.C.”
By WILL WEISSERT and MICHELLE L. PRICE
Associated Press
