Trump's attempts to remake D.C. fall flat with Americans

Avery Lotz

President Trump — wearing a dark blue suit, a white collared shirt, a red tie and an American flag pin — reaches for a small, white model of an arch on a table. — President Trump reaches for a model of the planned Triumph Arch during a dinner in the East Room of the White House on Oct. 15, 2025. Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Two of President Trump's major D.C. remodels are falling flat with Americans, a Thursday poll finds.

Why it matters: Trump's grand vision for a White House ballroom where the bulldozed East Wing once stood and plans for an enormous triumphal arch aren't resonating with Americans as the president stares down a tough midterm election.

Driving the news: More than half (56%) of respondents oppose Trump's $400 million ballroom project, which he's adamant is necessary for national security, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted April 24-28.

Just 28% of respondents said they strongly or somewhat supported the remodel, which is locked in an ongoing legal challenge.
There is a partisan split: 87% of Democrats and 61% of Independents or others opposed the ballroom, compared to 20% of Republicans.
The polling, taken both before and after Saturday's shooting incident, echoes a cascade of public criticism.

Trump's vision for an arch similarly turned off respondents, with 52% opposed to the project, including 41% strongly opposed. Just 21% support the plan.

A federal arts commission gave it a thumbs up earlier this month, despite receiving about 1,000 public comments opposing it, Axios' Cuneyt Dil reported.

The other side: White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Axios that Trump is "focused on saving our country – not garnering recognition."

"Anyone who finds an issue with President Trump celebrating the greatness of our country and beautifying our Nation's Capital during our historic semiquincentennial celebration clearly suffers from a severe and incurable disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome."

The bottom line: Trump's is already leaving his footprint on the district — but a significant slice of Americans signal they want him to go back to the blueprints.

Methodology: The poll was conducted online April 24-28 among 2,560 U.S. adults nationwide reached through the Ipsos KnowledgePanel. These results are based on a random half-sample of 1,292 U.S. adults, with a 2.8 percentage-point margin of sampling error

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Trump's attempts to remake D.C. fall flat with Americans

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