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Goes HGTV President Trump brings a particular brand of reality TV-style renovations to the nation’s capital. Listen · 9:39 min Share full article 61 After generations of slow and often staid improvements, the Trump era has already added a splashy flair to today’s Washington, including an Ultimate Fighting Championship octagon cage rising on the South Lawn, ready to host a fight to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday.
Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times By Jesse McKinley Jesse McKinley reported from Washington. June 11, 2026 See more of our coverage in your search results. Add The New York Times on Google It’s a trope of home makeover shows: an unhappy homeowner looks around and wants to make some changes.
Designers and contractors swoop in to try to fulfill their dreams as the clock ticks. And then, complications ensue. Such is the scene in Washington in the age of Donald Trump, the builder president who has seemingly decided to overhaul not just his home — the White House — but the entire city around him, using the nation’s capital as a canvas for his own particular brand of reality TV-inflected renovations.
After generations of slow and often staid improvements, Trump has already added a splashy, outsized flair to today’s Washington: country club umbrellas in the paved over Rose Garden, for example, and a temporary but massive Ultimate Fighting Championship octagon cage on the South Lawn, primed for a fight to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday.
Such changes are reflective of his personal and political tastes. At the same time, however, the president’s makeovers have also followed a tried-and-true story line native to HGTV and other fix-it-up shows, according to veterans and students of that form. ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT “It’s a very clean narrative: Dissatisfied homeowners come in, then there’s a fixer, and then things get better,” said Eunji Kim, the author of “The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy,” adding that Trump “knows the formula” after years of hosting “The Apprentice.” And with HGTV ranking as one of the nation’s most popular television channels, “he knows that Americans are very familiar with it, too,” Kim said.
Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like. Jesse McKinley is a Times reporter covering politics, pop culture, lifestyle and the confluence of all three. READ 61 COMMENTS Share full article 61 Related Content ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Site Index Site Information Navigation © 2026 The New York Times Company NYTCoContact UsAccessibilityWork with usAdvertiseT Brand StudioPrivacy PolicyCookie PolicyTerms of ServiceTerms of SaleSite MapHelpSubscriptionsManage Privacy Preferences To leave without signing in, use your browser's Back button.
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