President Trump saluted Wednesday as workers raised an enormous U.S. flag on one of two 100-foot flagpoles he had installed on the White House grounds as a personal gift to the nation.
Mr. Trump and special guests watched workers hoist Old Glory on the South Lawn, hours after the president posed for photographs with the hard-hatted workers who finished the installation.
“It’s such a beautiful pole,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “These are the best poles anywhere in the country, in the world actually.”
Mr. Trump announced in April that he would pay to have flagpoles installed on the South and North lawns of the grounds. Each pole is nearly 100 feet tall.
The White House has an American flag atop its roof, but Mr. Trump wanted to see larger flags at the complex.
“I’ve always said: Why doesn’t it have a flagpole from the grass? They call it a flagpole from the grass. They have a little one on top, a very little one,” he said, pointing to the White House roof.
Mr. Trump inspected the installation on the South Lawn and complimented the installers as he chatted with reporters.
“It’s about the largest you’ll ever see, and it’s tapered. It’s at a quality that you guys rarely get to even put up,” Mr. Trump told the workers. “It’s a very exciting project to me.”
The president joked around with the workers and said they all probably voted for him.
Hours later, Mr. Trump returned to the South Lawn with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James Risch, Idaho Republican, and Charles Kushner, his new ambassador to France, to watch workers raise the flag.
Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka was on hand with her husband, Jared Kushner, who is Charles Kushner’s son.
Mr. Trump said each pole cost him about $50,000. The flagpoles are white with brass-colored round ornaments on top.
The president said the poles wouldn’t interfere with Marine One helicopter landings on the lawn.
Mr. Trump promoted his effort to make the grounds more patriotic-looking while he deals with the conflict between Israel and Iran.
He has been meeting with his national security team to determine whether the U.S. should get involved in finishing off the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
The president said Iran should have negotiated a deal earlier. He also said the U.S. had control over Tehran airspace and that his patience was wearing thin.
“For 40 years they’ve been saying ‘death to America, death to Israel.’ … They were bullies, they were schoolyard bullies, and now they’re not bullies anymore,” Mr. Trump said. “But we’ll see what happens, right?”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.