Jul 7, 2026
A new granite White House South Lawn helipad ordered by President Trump will require construction crews to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to complete a month ahead of schedule.
According to The Washington Post, the expedited schedule adds $875,000 to the overall $13 million price tag for the project — which also reportedly includes work on the White House South Portico and driveway.
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“We’re building a helipad, beautiful helipad, and it’s got the seal of the White House on it in granite, in carved granite. It’s really a beautiful thing,” Trump told reporters on Monday.
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The Post, meanwhile, suggests that the expedited construction could be connected to a scheduled Sept. 24 state visit by China’s President Xi Jinping.
They noted that official documentation shows the request to complete the project “no later than Sept. 17” occurred “days after” Trump extended the state visit invitation.
Covering the cost of Trump’s helipad
In speaking with reporters Monday, Trump defended the need for a helipad as a means of protecting the South Lawn — the same outdoor area of the White House that was ravaged by the staging of a UFC event there on the president’s 80th birthday last month.
The new Marine One presidential choppers, introduced in 2024, differ from the previous model of helicopters used for the fleet. As such, when they land on the South Lawn — the traditional presidential pickup and drop-off spot — the grass “gets ripped out,” Trump said.
The Post noted that multiple administrations discussed installing a helipad due to the potential damage to the lawn and that it was the Biden administration that actually signed the contract with D.C.-based Clark Construction to get it done.
Lockheed Martin, which builds the helicopters through its Sikorsky Aircraft company, confirmed that they would donate roughly $5 million to $6 million to cover the cost of the helipad construction — which Trump suggested was done because “they felt a little bit guilty” for not “tell[ing] us how powerful these helicopters were.”
The Post said plans for the helipad “show a 100-foot-wide presidential seal made of stone and a white-stone sidewalk connecting the helipad to the White House’s South Portico.”
The outlet reported that documents shared between the White House and Clark Construction — which is also behind Trump’s new White House ballroom — explain that meeting the expedited timeline for the entire project will require “24/7 access/working work hours” for crews at the added $875,000 cost. The previous plan reportedly called for a 19-hour workday.
With Lockheed Martin paying for the helipad, the White House didn’t respond to Moneywise’s question about where the money for the remainder of the overall $13 million project would come from, or if the project was being sped up for the Chinese president’s visit. Clark Construction also didn’t respond to Moneywise’s request for comment.
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Concern that taxpayers ultimately pay in the end
Project budget increases, meanwhile, have become a recurring feature of Trump administration overhauls to areas of the White House and around Washington.
Most notably, Trump’s White House ballroom ballooned from an estimated cost of $200 million to $600 million, with taxpayers allegedly paying for half the bill after the president promised the project was “taxpayer-free.” It was subsequently reported that donors who helped pay for parts of the project received a total of $50 billion in government contracts.
As well, taxpayers footed the bill for the famously inflated cost of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool restoration, which jumped to roughly $14 million-$16 million for a project Trump originally priced at $1.8 million. The contract to complete the restoration — which has since been plagued by peeling paint and algae that turned the water green — was reportedly awarded via a no-bid process to “a business tied to a longtime supporter of President Trump.”
Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Newsweek, Georgetown University law and economics professor David Super expressed skepticism that, despite Lockheed Martin picking up the helipad tab, taxpayers won’t eventually pay for it in the long run.
“These assertions that projects will be funded by private parties do not address the problem,” Super warned. “We have no reason to believe that any of these other projects really will be funded by the private sector.”
That’s because of the influence such companies could gain with the White House when they cover the costs of Trump-related projects, he added: “If, for example, Sikorsky were to gain a Pentagon contract for an inflated price, the cost of the helipad will, in effect, be borne by taxpayers anyway.”
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Mike Crisolago is a Sr. Staff Reporter at Moneywise with nearly 20 years of experience working as a journalist, editor, content strategist and podcast host. He specializes in personal finance writing related to the 50-plus demographic and retirement, as well as politics and lifestyle content.
