President Donald Trump on Tuesday compared the structure being built on the South Lawn of the White House for this month’s UFC fight to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
And he thinks it might have a similar fate.
Speaking in a TikTok video, the president said the Eiffel Tower was a temporary structure set up for the 1889 Paris Exposition.
“It was supposed to be taken down immediately after the world’s fair,” he said. “Well, they never took it down.”
The facility currently under construction in front of the White House is also supposed to be temporary:
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The structure is supposed to have a UFC Octagon in the center and seats around it for a fight on June 14, which also happens to be Trump’s 80th birthday.
But the president said in his TikTok video that it might stick around for a very long time.
“We’re building something in front of the White House that’s quite attractive to a lot of people,” he said. “It’s gonna have the big UFC fight on June 14th, and I’m looking at it and maybe we’ll never, ever take it down.”
Trump has been making over much of the White House and its grounds to his liking. He’s added gold embellishments to the Oval Office and elsewhere. He paved over the Rose Garden and turned it into a “club” reminiscent of the one at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. And, most controversially, he’s knocked down the entire East Wing to build a giant ballroom, which he has obsessed over publicly.
Trump initially said Americans wouldn’t pay a penny for the ballroom. However, Republicans in Congress then asked for as much as $1 billion for the facility and related security upgrades.
They abandoned that push after a public outcry over the cost.
Construction of the ballroom is currently on hold after a court said the president needs congressional approval to proceed.