Trump’s staff rushed to add new renovations to the White House - so they’d be in place for his 80th birthday

Four new chandeliers went up in the West Wing just before Donald Trump's 80th birthday weekend in June, installed under another no-bid contract, The Washington Sun was first to report. The work is the latest in a string of changes the president has made to the White House, according to The Independent.

Contracting documents described the job as urgent and said it had to be finished over the weekend because the fixtures needed to be in place ahead of the June anniversary events. That same weekend brought a UFC fight on the White House lawn and celebrations of America's 250th, along with Trump's milestone birthday. The contract went to Agile1Tech, a Virginia company that also built the viewing and gaming room for the fight. Officials justified skipping competitive bidding by pointing to the timing and the difficulty of the job, saying few vendors exist and none could handle hanging a complex chandelier in a historic building. The White House did not answer the Sun's request for comment.

Trump has also covered the Oval Office in gold, demolished the East Wing for a $330 million ballroom funded mostly by private donors, replaced the Rose Garden with a patio, and added a helipad.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Independent’s reporting. Read the full story at The Independent →