President Donald Trump has never shied away from a construction project, and as 2026 begins, he’s setting his sights on two of the nation’s most iconic venues: the White House and the storied golf courses at Joint Base Andrews. These ambitious renovations, blending presidential tradition and Trump’s signature style, are stirring both excitement and controversy in Washington and beyond.
Trump, fresh off a two-week Florida golf vacation, is planning what the White House describes as the most significant overhaul in the history of the Courses at Andrews. Located inside Joint Base Andrews in Maryland—just about 15 miles from the White House—the “president’s golf course” has long been a favored retreat for commanders in chief, from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama and Joe Biden. According to the Associated Press, Obama played the Andrews course more than any other president, racking up roughly 110 rounds during his eight-year tenure.
Yet, despite the course’s presidential pedigree, Trump has consistently preferred his own family’s golf clubs, spending an estimated 93 days of his second term golfing at Trump-owned venues in Virginia, Florida, and New Jersey, as reported by the Associated Press. Oddly enough, there’s no record of him ever hitting the links at Andrews. That may soon change, as Trump has enlisted golf legend Jack Nicklaus to design a sweeping renovation of the base’s two 18-hole courses and one 9-hole course, which first opened in 1960.
Trump and Nicklaus toured Joint Base Andrews by helicopter before Thanksgiving 2025, surveying the grounds and discussing plans for the upgrade. As Trump put it, Andrews is “a great place, that’s been destroyed over the years, through lack of maintenance.” While some golfers might quibble with that assessment—online reviews frequently praise the course’s mature trees, tricky roughs, and scenic water hazards—there’s no denying that a presidential facelift is on the horizon.
“President Trump is a champion-level golfer with an extraordinary eye for detail and design,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “His vision to renovate and beautify Joint Base Andrews’ golf courses will bring much-needed improvements that service members and their families will be able to enjoy for generations to come.”
Details about the project remain sparse. The White House says plans are still in the early stages, with the total cost and funding sources yet to be determined. Trump, for his part, has insisted the overhaul will require “very little money.” There’s also talk of adding a multifunctional event center to the complex—a move that would further cement Andrews’ reputation as a hub for both recreation and presidential diplomacy.
The Courses at Andrews aren’t just another set of fairways. They’re woven into the fabric of American political life. Michael Thomas, the course’s former general manager, has teed off with four different presidents and remembers the elaborate security measures that come with a presidential round. “It’s a Cecil B. DeMille production every time,” Thomas recalled, describing the armada of Secret Service golf carts and the president’s own motorcade. One thing unites all the presidents, in Thomas’s experience: “They all like to drive the cart because they never get an opportunity to drive. It’s like getting your driver’s license all over again.”
Security at Andrews is tight. When the president plays, officials block off nine holes to keep the course secure and the pace brisk. The courses are typically reserved for active or retired military members and Defense Department employees, making it a rarefied setting even before Trump’s planned upgrades.
Meanwhile, Trump’s penchant for grand design isn’t limited to golf. On Friday, January 2, 2026, his motorcade rolled into Arc Stone & Tile in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, where he shopped for marble and onyx for his most audacious White House project yet: a 90,000-square-foot ballroom set to replace the East Wing. According to a White House official, Trump paid for the materials “at his own expense.” Michael Coiro, owner of the Italian marble shop, told WPBF that Trump has been a customer for 25 years and that he opened the store especially for the president’s visit.
The ballroom, which will seat 999 people—dwarfing the State Dining Room’s 140-guest capacity—is estimated to cost $400 million, funded through a mix of personal expenses and private donations. The East Wing was demolished in October 2025 to make way for the new venue, and the White House plans to present design plans to the National Capital Planning Commission on January 8, 2026. Trump hopes to have the ballroom completed by the end of his second term in January 2029.
Many of the renovations, including the ballroom’s heavy use of gold, echo the opulent style of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The president has also overseen improvements to the Lincoln bedroom and the Oval Office and even paved over the Rose Garden to create a Mar-a-Lago-like patio area. While these changes have drawn both praise and criticism, Trump’s supporters argue that he’s modernizing the White House for a new era. Detractors, meanwhile, see the projects as lavish and out of step with presidential tradition.
Trump’s construction ambitions extend beyond the White House and Andrews. He’s led building projects at the Kennedy Center, which has been renamed the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts by a board he handpicked. Other proposals include erecting a Paris-style arch near the Lincoln Memorial and a plan to rebuild Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia. On January 1, 2026, the Trump administration also ended a lease agreement with a non-profit for three public golf courses in Washington, a move the White House says isn’t tied to the Andrews plan but could further shape the capital’s golfing landscape.
For those who’ve witnessed the presidential pastime up close, the golf course offers a rare glimpse of the commander in chief at ease. Thomas, the longtime Andrews manager, remembers playing with the elder President Bush as Barbara Bush walked their dog Millie nearby, and watching George W. Bush squeeze in a mountain bike ride before teeing off. Obama once cut a round short for a top-secret briefing on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. “If there was rain coming, they’d get the weather forecast before we would,” Thomas joked. “They would cancel quick on that.”
As Trump pushes forward with his latest round of renovations, the question lingers: Will these projects become lasting symbols of a transformative presidency, or lightning rods for debate about the balance between tradition and personal flair? For now, the bulldozers and marble slabs are rolling in, and Washington is watching closely as the president leaves his mark—on the fairways, the ballrooms, and the very heart of American power.
