According to a report from CNN, serious security upgrades were required at the White House before Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, but he left them for his successor Joe Biden when he assumed the Oval Office because the former president and his wife Melania didn't want to deal with the mess and inconvenience of construction.
Facing security threats against the White House -- and prior to the invasion of the Capitol building on Jan 6th by far-right insurrectionists -- the Secret Service recommended improvements on the grounds that included "substantial upgrades to its future security apparatus, updates that would include digging deeply and extensively, from the upper main driveway to the lower, across acres of pristine green grass."
With the Secret Service working in tandem with the National Park Service to put together a plan for the multimillion-dollar overhaul, it was left to Trump to give the go-ahead with the assurance it would be done in phases to avoid a massive upheaval on the grounds.
According to CNN, Trump took a pass.
'The Trumps weren't so inclined," CNN is reporting. "They didn't want the noise and, Melania Trump in particular, wanted to avoid disrupting the aesthetics on the back lawn, where there could perhaps be events. The first couple decided to "pass it to the next guy," said one of the people familiar. That next guy ended up being President Joe Biden."
According to a member of President Joe Biden's Secret Service detail, the delay by Trump has created problems providing security for the man who defeated him. In a word, he called it a "headache."
"For more than a month now, Biden has had to meet his helicopter, Marine One, on the Ellipse, the park below the South Lawn perimeter of the White House and just north of Constitution Avenue. Marine One has had to land and take off from this not-usual spot because of the construction, and Biden has had to motorcade approximately two minutes from the White House to the Ellipse to depart and arrive, where before he could ostensibly walk out his back door a few hundred yards and board his private transport," the report states before adding, "Trump may have been smart to pass off the project to "the next guy," considering the weeks of disruption and noise that have already occurred, and will likely continue for at least two to three more, according to a person familiar with where the work stands."
"A White House spokesperson says neither the President nor his senior staff have been frustrated by the changes to the typical routing," CNN also reported.
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