President Trump is considering installing a helipad at the White House complex to keep presidential helicopters from damaging the South Lawn’s grass while landing, according to people familiar with the matter, in his latest proposal to reshape the executive office and residence.
The White House plan calls for the helipad to be 100 feet in diameter with a presidential seal in black granite and installed on the South Lawn, the people said.
The new generation of helicopters used by the White House has been known to occasionally scorch the grass on its landing zones with its engine exhaust — at least since September 2018, when the issue was found during a training session.
The discussion of a new landing zone at the White House comes as Mr. Trump has relentlessly pushed forward projects that have altered the presidential complex during his second term, even in the face of legal challenges.
A former real estate mogul, the president has devoted his time to paving the Rose Garden, making over a White House bathroom in marble and gold and adding gold flourishes to his West Wing office, among other projects.
Mr. Trump’s project to replace the demolished East Wing with a $400 million, 90,000-square-feet ballroom has faced setbacks in recent weeks. A federal judge stopped the work, requiring approval from Congress. And a Republican effort to include $1 billion for the ballroom in a bill funding immigration agencies was struck down by the Senate parliamentarian on procedural grounds.
“President Trump has continued to make improvements at the White House and all around D.C. to benefit future presidents and Americans,” Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, said in a statement.
The Navy launched a project in 2010 to procure replacements for two helicopter models that had been used by the White House for more than three decades, VH-60N and VH-3D. It solicited 23 helicopters, including two test aircraft, at about $215 million apiece with a total cost estimated at $5 billion, according to the Government Accountability Office. The final choice, VH-92As produced by Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky, were procured between 2014 and 2021 and underwent a period of testing.
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was the first president to fly on a VH-92A, boarding a new Marine One on his way to the Democratic National Convention in August 2024. No new helicopter has yet transported a president from the White House’s South Lawn.
