Trump Nests in a White House and City He’s Remolding to Fit Him

Attendees during a dinner with cabinet members and members of Congress, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on Sept. 5.

Photographer: Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg

President Donald Trump spent a Saturday afternoon, like many other Americans on a late summer day: venting about setbacks to a backyard landscaping project.

How had a gash, some 75 feet long, appeared in the limestone newly installed in his renovated Rose Garden?