Trump’s latest project? A Lincoln Memorial promenade

Donald Trump has said he plans to build a “promenade” for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington because it is facing the wrong way.

The US president on Thursday derailed a press conference about coal investment to announce a new walkway to the memorial from the Potomac River and claimed he could name it after himself.

It is the latest in a series of beautifications by Mr Trump as he plots to remake and radically change some of the US capital’s best-known buildings and locations.

Announcing the promenade, he told reporters at the Oval Office: “They want to call it the Trump Promenade. I don’t know if I want to do that, but it’s going to be beautiful.”

Mr Trump did not make clear who had suggested it be named after him.

If it goes ahead, the promenade would be built over two roads that run alongside the site to allow pedestrians to cross and get to the Potomac River and other locations popular with tourists.

He added: “The Lincoln Memorial – the front was supposed to be the back. The back was supposed to be the front. It never got built, because they built two roadways behind it after it was built, and it shut off the gateway to the water.”

Mr Trump has already knocked down the White House’s East Wing to build a huge, 90,000 sq ft ballroom, a project that has become increasingly important to him, and hugely controversial.

He also wants to construct a 250ft “Arc de Trump”, similar to Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, and suggested on Tuesday he may never take down a huge cage that was installed outside the White House for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event later this month.

Many of his proposals have been controversial and faced legal challenges.

In one instance, his attempt to rename the Kennedy Centre to the “Trump-Kennedy Centre” was rejected by a judge who ordered its name be changed back.

He has also showed off plans to rework the Reflecting Pool, situated east of the Lincoln Memorial, which the National Park Service will rework for an estimated $69m (£51m).

Mr Trump gave a multimillion-dollar no-bid contract to his own “pool guy” to paint the pool “American flag blue”.

Doug Burgum, the interior secretary who is in charge of overseeing the work, said the new projects would complete the ideas contained in the so-called McMillan Plan, a comprehensive blueprint for renovating DC’s parks from 1902.

Mr Burgum said the new road mentioned by Mr Trump would make it easier for those on foot.

“Right now, there’s no pedestrian access,” he said. “Now, to be able to walk around the Lincoln Memorial, walk on a pedestrian bridge over the first highway, walk over the next one and right down to the water… these projects would complete the original vision of the McMillan Plan.”

[Source: Daily Telegraph]