Trump inaugurates new WH helipad, but networks skip coverage during First Amendment fight

U.S. President Donald Trump showed off his new White House helicopter landing pad, attempting to brush aside a First Amendment firestorm even as major television networks kept their cameras away in protest of CNN being banned from the grounds.A drizzle fell on the South Lawn on Monday (September 21, 2026) as Mr. Trump used oversized gold scissors to cut a red, white and blue ribbon.He then exchanged handshakes with officials and some members of a construction crew wearing green smocks and hard hats - seeking to portray business as usual.If he had words to mark the occasion, however, it was impossible to hear them over the noise of his waiting helicopter. Normally, TV network crews work to capture clearer audio.Mr. Trump didn't answer reporters' shouted questions before climbing aboard Marine One on his way to New York. Instead, he wrote on his social media site, “We are just leaving the White House Lawn on the maiden voyage from the newly built, and very beautiful, Heliport!” MS Now, Politico and CNN have sued after Mr. Trump announced Friday (September 18, 2026) that he was banning them from covering the White House in a clear escalation of Mr. Trump's long-running efforts - in the courts and through administrative action - to restrict news coverage he finds objectionable.CNN normally participates in a five-network rotation that provides pooled footage of daily events at the White House.When the network was barred from taking its assigned turn on Monday (September 21, 2026), ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News agreed collectively to the extraordinary step of skipping Mr. Trump's helipad ceremony.Mr. Trump has long crowed about how the new helipad - featuring extensive granite that he boasts will have a “million-year life,” as well as a large insignia reading the “Seal of the President of the United States” - would impress Chinese President Xi Jinping, who arrives Wednesday (September 23, 2026) for a state visit.He's been focused on wowing Mr. Xi even as he decried Democrats as communists in an attempt to help Republicans retain control of Congress in upcoming midterm elections.But his effort to curb access for media outlets to the White House has overshadowed Mr. Trump's pet building projects and Mr. Xi's visit.Igniting constitutional questions over media access also eclipsed the reason Mr. Trump was lifting off from the helipad - the annual trip to attend the United Nations General Assembly beginning on Tuesday (September 22, 2026).Speaking later to reporters in New York after meeting with the city's mayor, Zohran Mamdani, Mr. Trump tried again to shrug off the lack of network TV coverage of his movements.“It's interesting because they said they were gonna boycott me. But they never boycott me,” the President said, before adding, “I think that these outlets have an obligation to be fair.” The President has spent large swaths of his second term focused on building projects even as his administration struggles to find a way out of the ongoing war in Iran.Mr. Trump's approval ratings have sunk with only about six weeks before Election Day, as voters are increasingly worried about inflation and a potentially weakening economy.His successor in the Oval Office could move to undo much of his renovation work at the White House. And, in line with Mr. Trump's assertions that the new helipad granite could last a million years, the president has made other grand pronouncements about his prowess with renovation projects that quickly fell flat.He said the refurbishing of the Lincoln Memorial's Reflecting Pool would last a century, only for the paint to fade and its liner to peel away in chunks just days after it was laid.The helipad work began in June. Mr. Trump also ripped out the original Tennessee flagstone along the West Wing's colonnade and replaced it with black granite.He similarly refurbished the traditional walkway from the White House's diplomatic entrance with white granite, along with a portion of the asphalt driveway around the South Lawn.Mr. Trump rushed to finish the project before Mr. Xi arrives and has argued that visiting dignitaries will be dazzled by the project - despite Marine One being the only aircraft that lands so close to the White House.The President says the improvement was required since Vietnam War-era choppers that had long been used as Marine One are being replaced by modern ones that are too powerful to land on the White House lawn without damaging the lawn's grass.Mr. Trump has spent months repeatedly talking about grass as a way to promote his various building plans, even though many of the construction projects required ripping up turf.Mr. Trump said in July that the helipad project would be privately funded and estimated its cost at up to $6 million. Additional changes, including extensive efforts to level the ground around the helipad, have made calculating the exact expenditure difficult.The once-storied South Lawn has become a major construction site this year. In June, Mr. Trump erected a fighting cage and temporary arena for a UFC fight marking his 80th birthday. Then, crews got down to work on the helipad.Mr. Trump says Sikorsky Aircraft - a subsidiary of defence contracting giant Lockheed Martin - would be paying for the helipad, since the company made the newer, larger helicopters. In his online post, Mr. Trump thanked Lockheed Martin's CEO.Some of Mr. Trump's projects have relied on public money, even when the President initially suggested otherwise.When crews originally demolished the White House's East Wing to make room for Trump's $400 million ballroom, the President said it would be paid for by private donors.But his administration later sought $1 billion from Congress to make security improvements to the structure.