Trump plays White House tour guide to show off work on his helipad and ballroom

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump played White House tour guide on Wednesday, showing off the helipad he is building on the lawn before leaning over to autograph a piece of it and bragging regarding the ballroom he's rushing to complete despite legal challenges.

Trump gushed for a number of uninterrupted minutes concerning granite being laid and noted the chopper landing area would leave visiting foreign leaders "very impressed" – including Chinese President Xi Jinping. This person is coming next month.

At times, he sounded almost like a construction manager, singing the praises of granite over asphalt in painstaking detail and noting for reporters he brought out for the show that the stone could withstand 35, 000 pounds per square inch of pressure.

"That's stone that, if you took a hammer and you started hammering right now – all day long – you wouldn't see a mark on it, literally, that's the kind of power it is, " Trump remarked, at times straining to be heard over the thrum of ongoing work behind him.

For context, the president additionally disclosed for the first time that he has replaced the walkway from the White House's diplomatic entrance along with a portion of the asphalt driveway around the South Lawn with white granite.

"One thing I know how to do is build, " he remarked, asserting that asphalt is "not appropriate for a great house, or a great place like the White House." He stated that, had he instead merely applied "really powerful concrete, " it would have backed "just a tiny fraction of that in terms of strength."

Taken together, the developments around trump plays White House tour guide to show off work on his point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.