Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / The 'Trumpification' of Washington DC
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Well, it's early morning at the White House and we're
- 0:04Speaker 1: here for a sneak preview of an event of the
- 0:08Speaker 1: like that's never happened here at the White House before.
- 0:10Speaker 1: Look there's the West wing at the Oval Office at
- 0:13Speaker 1: the end there, and come down here. Look at this.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Check that out.
- 0:19Speaker 2: We are now President Trump glove to UFC crowds and
- 0:22Speaker 2: they love him.
- 0:23Speaker 1: There is no question that an event like this has
- 0:26Speaker 1: never been held at the White House before. There is
- 0:29Speaker 1: the South Portico at the south lawn of the White
- 0:32Speaker 1: House is underneath where we are now. This is where
- 0:35Speaker 1: the President's helicopter usually lands. And look at it. Now.
- 0:38Speaker 1: The stage is set, the cage is set, the octagon
- 0:42Speaker 1: they're calling it set on the President's birthday for a
- 0:45Speaker 1: series of UFC fights Ultimate Fighting Championship. I think it's
- 0:51Speaker 1: going to be the biggest event we've ever had, and
- 0:53Speaker 1: there's going to be forty three hundred people there. It
- 0:56Speaker 1: kind of perfectly encapitulates everything about President Trump for those
- 1:00Speaker 1: who love and respect him, and of course those who don't.
- 1:04Speaker 1: They see in all this a reflection of the President,
- 1:07Speaker 1: a projection of power, force, dominance, But it's also kind
- 1:11Speaker 1: of blunt brutal, primitive, unbecoming of the White House. It
- 1:16Speaker 1: is a presidential mansion. He certainly made his mark on.
- 1:20Speaker 1: So all of this was paid for by myself. There
- 1:23Speaker 1: is the east wing, of course, gone the ballroom to
- 1:26Speaker 1: come in its place. This is one well lived building.
- 1:31Speaker 1: They have a three hundred and sixty degree vision of Whithington, DC.
- 1:35Speaker 1: But beyond here, this is a city he's molding, changing, improving.
- 1:41Speaker 1: Well that depends.
- 1:42Speaker 3: DC is looking beautiful, a.
- 1:44Speaker 1: Cleaner city, a safer city, a functioning city. That was
- 1:48Speaker 1: his pledge. And there are unquestionable improvements like the fountains
- 1:53Speaker 1: across the city. They're now working. And you know, I
- 1:57Speaker 1: think that this here presents its real confliction for critics
- 2:01Speaker 1: of the president, because while so many people do see
- 2:04Speaker 1: him genuinely as a vandal for what he is doing
- 2:07Speaker 1: down at the White House, this here represents a massive
- 2:12Speaker 1: improvement and it's part of a pattern was shot for
- 2:15Speaker 1: a while, right.
- 2:16Speaker 2: It was, I don't remember how many years, but a while.
- 2:19Speaker 1: Happy it's open, I am.
- 2:21Speaker 2: Yeah, it's lovely. Clearly he gave direction to open it
- 2:25Speaker 2: and clean things and make things look nice.
- 2:27Speaker 3: And they look nice.
- 2:28Speaker 2: I understand there's a bit of a political nature to
- 2:30Speaker 2: the fact that it's gotten fixed. And it's a little
- 2:33Speaker 2: bit unfortunate because I don't support what he's been doing
- 2:35Speaker 2: in DC. If he wants to claim the win whatever,
- 2:38Speaker 2: man Sure, then.
- 2:42Speaker 1: There is the reflecting pool, drained, repaired, relined, refilled.
- 2:48Speaker 2: The water is pouring in as we speak.
- 2:50Speaker 3: This is called swimming pool on steroids.
- 2:53Speaker 2: Beautiful color.
- 2:54Speaker 1: I picked American flag blow.
- 2:55Speaker 3: I couldn't make up my mind.
- 2:57Speaker 1: You know, it's remarkable how quickly these projects have been completed.
- 3:00Speaker 1: They've been fast tracked by President Trump. And he's done
- 3:04Speaker 1: that precisely because of the sort of president he is,
- 3:07Speaker 1: one that doesn't worry about the rules, about the conventions.
- 3:10Speaker 1: He just pushes things through. That's what makes him, for
- 3:13Speaker 1: so many people, so attractive and for so many other
- 3:16Speaker 1: people so controversial. So we want to know what everyone
- 3:19Speaker 1: thinks of the new Trump reflexive food plus who loves
- 3:23Speaker 1: Trump more than me?
- 3:24Speaker 3: Donald Trump has actually fallen through on what he said
- 3:26Speaker 3: he's going to do, and he's training the swamp and.
- 3:28Speaker 1: This is symbolic to it cleaning up the city. Well,
- 3:31Speaker 1: I think it's beautiful.
- 3:32Speaker 2: It's clean, and I want to be proud in my country.
- 3:35Speaker 1: But I don't. I have nothing to say good about him.
- 3:38Speaker 1: I'm sorry you're pumped up, I am, I'm so freaking sights.
- 3:42Speaker 1: Oh and by the way, Trump said the work here
- 3:45Speaker 1: would cost around two million dollars. In the end, it's
- 3:48Speaker 1: cost more than fourteen million. Then there is the arch,
- 3:53Speaker 1: a triumphal arch. He's calling it two hundred and fifty
- 3:57Speaker 1: foot tall, a neoclassical monument does to commemorate the United
- 4:01Speaker 1: States two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. So let me show
- 4:05Speaker 1: you where Trump wants his arch to be. That's the
- 4:08Speaker 1: Lincoln Memorial there. The mal runs all the way down
- 4:10Speaker 1: that way towards the Capitol Building. And if we spin
- 4:13Speaker 1: round and have a look here, this is the bridge
- 4:16Speaker 1: that runs over to Arlington Cemetery, and just the other
- 4:19Speaker 1: side of the bridge, on the roundabout, that's where he
- 4:22Speaker 1: wants his arch. For those campaigning against what's going on
- 4:27Speaker 1: in the city, President Trump's changes are deeply destabilizing.
- 4:32Speaker 3: I'm a fan of great cities throughout the world, and
- 4:35Speaker 3: what it's been shocking these last months is to see
- 4:38Speaker 3: the sort of whiplash inducing proposals that keep coming fast
- 4:42Speaker 3: and furious that will have significant impacts Does.
- 4:47Speaker 1: It make you angry, does it make you upset? Try
- 4:50Speaker 1: and give me your your emotions.
- 4:53Speaker 3: I think that it would be very easy to be
- 4:56Speaker 3: emotional about what's happening. These are all one offs, and
- 4:59Speaker 3: they're all pet projects that are all collectively going to
- 5:02Speaker 3: have forever impact.
- 5:06Speaker 1: And so in this the year of America's two hundred
- 5:08Speaker 1: and fiftieth birthday, Donald Trump is using the occasion to
- 5:12Speaker 1: cement his legacy. Whether his changes to this nation's capital
- 5:16Speaker 1: areliked or not, they'll be difficult to turn back from.