Trump shows off White House construction projects: ‘We get the best stuff’

President Trump on Wednesday showed reporters a closer look at the White House’s various construction projects, including the ballroom and new helipad , saying “we get the best stuff.”

Trump led an uninterrupted, 30-minute tour of the new White House helipad designed for Marine One, which, when completed, will be 100 feet wide, made of granite and adorned with the presidential seal. Trump signed the underside of the slab while talking to reporters.

The president also praised the slab’s durability and said it will be “here for a long time.”

“We get the best stuff; one thing I know how to do is build,” he told reporters .

Trump heralded how the helipad will “look incredible from the air and from every place else” and highlighted that it will be used for celebratory events and meetings, including his upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Workers told the president that the landing pad will be completed by Sept. 21, two days before Xi’s planned arrival.

“We might make it for President Xi,” Trump replied. “That’d be nice but not imperative.”

The granite used for the helipad measures at 4 inches thick and was dug out of a quarry in California, with “The Seal of the United States of America” carved into it, Reuters reported .

“This will be much better for state arrivals,” the president ​said. “And in fact, instead of being on grass, now they’ll be using that almost like a table. They can have events on it. They can have ​people go there for cocktails and then walk to the ballroom after that’s finished.”

He also emphasized the durability of the slab, saying it will “be here long after we’re gone, no matter what happens with the world, this is not moving. This will take any kind of shot.”

He requested earlier this month that construction crews tear up the helipad after he was frustrated with its appearance, according to The Washington Post . Two people familiar with the project told the outlet that the president had expressed interest in adding a landing pad level with the horizon, which would require disassembling the helipad and leveling the South Lawn.

“Nice job, fellas. Does anybody know the word ‘media’? This is serious media and you guys are doing a great job. Sorry to take an extra week and a half, but lifting it up was one of the best things we’ve ever done,” Trump told crews working on the helipad on Wednesday, confirming the Post’s reporting.

He celebrated the driveway leading up to the southern portico, as well, saying there were previously potholes in the roadway.

“It’s ridiculous the way this place was taken care of,” Trump continued. “Nobody, including other presidents, they didn’t see it. But I see it because I was very good at real estate, like maybe the best, in a lot of ways. I love construction. I love seeing things properly taken care of.”

The president also took notice of the two flagpoles on the northern and southern sides of the White House, which he donated to himself.

“This is a great pole,” Trump said. “This is a top-of-the-line — it’s tapered. This isn’t a straight up-and-down job, which looks terrible, frankly. It’s a tapered pole, great — I’m very good at flagpoles.”

The walls of the White House ballroom towered behind everyone as construction on the planned 90,000-square-foot addition to the executive mansion went on.

“We’ve gotten tremendous architectural reviews,” he said about the project. “It’s beautiful.”

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is challenging the project, arguing to the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the administration’s emergency request to allow construction must be denied. The Trump administration wants the justices to step in to stop a lower court order that would grind the above-ground work to a halt starting at the end of the day on Friday.

Trump characterized his effort to revamp the White House as long overdue

“This building was falling apart,” he told reporters. “It’s falling apart –– like buying a building in New York City that’s in bad shape ​and putting it back together. That’s what I used to do. I did it better than anybody, I think.”