Donald Trump’s White House ballroom is set to be a gold-adorned Roman temple of a building with 40-foot ceilings and 22,000 square feet of space. Trump tells Ben Terris it shares design aspects with the Palace of Versailles but is in many ways going to be “more beautiful.” nymag.visitlink.me/CCtcE3

“For me, it’s good. Most of my time is doing other things, like the markets, Iran, Venezuela, the military. A lot of people who don’t do construction, it drives them crazy. For me, it’s actually relaxing because I’m really good at it,” says Donald Trump. nymag.visitlink.me/v874Sz

There is nothing Donald Trump enjoys more than talking construction. In less than two years, he has nearly finished a new White House helipad, turned the Rose Garden into a sculpture-laden patio, and made a disastrous attempt to refurbish the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. Since Trump’s return to the White House, his administration has made changes to more than 100 structures in Washington, D.C. The total cost: somewhere north of a billion dollars. The biggest project, in terms of both cost (estimated to be $800 million when done) and presidential mindshare, is the ballroom and the military bunker that will be tucked underneath. A senior White House official says Trump views all this building as part of his legacy. “When the ballroom is built, everyone will always know in perpetuity that it was built by Donald Trump. Are Democrats going to come in and rip it down? I have a hard time believing that,” he says. “I don’t think they could, physically,” Trump tells Washington correspondent @bterris. “I think it would be very hard. It’s meant for if there’s a nuclear attack. I’m not sure you could take it down.” Trump hopes it will one day bear his name. “It should,” he says. “I don’t know if it will, but it should.” In the meantime, the project has become entangled in questions that range far beyond architecture. Construction has been tied up in legal battles. Donors are fretting about whether they could be called in front of congressional panels should Democrats win majorities in the midterms. The politics of the ballroom are objectively bad for Trump. “It gets in the way of the administration’s ability to tell the story of everything they’ve accomplished in the first year,” one Trump adviser says. Trump is aware of these concerns. He just doesn’t really care. “I think the people should be thankful for it,” he says. “A lot of people said, ‘Don’t do this interview,’” he tells Terris. “But I’m proud of the work I’m doing.” Read Terris’s exclusive interview with Trump: nymag.visitlink.me/nySu6b

Ben Terris reports on the urgent, embarrassing, and occasionally convincing campaign by the Biden family to salvage their legacy. nymag.com/intelligencer/arti…

Now that the much-beleaguered Pam Bondi has been fired, people who know Jeanine Pirro say she wants the job of attorney general. “The judge is very close to the president, talks to him all the time,” a source familiar says. Trump tells Ben Terris, “Jeanine Pirro’s fantastic.” nymag.visitlink.me/Fw556b

If Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, is famous for anything these days, it’s her willingness to obey Donald Trump. “She’ll do what Trump wants,” a former prosecutor who worked for her says. “She’s an opportunist who likes the limelight.” Now that the much-beleaguered Bondi has been fired, people who know Pirro say she wants the job of attorney general. “The judge is very close to the president, talks to him all the time,” a source familiar says. Trump tells @bterris, “Jeanine Pirro’s fantastic.” But so far, Pirro has struggled to get her biggest new projects off the ground. After six Democratic lawmakers enraged Trump by filming a video reminding active-duty members of the military that they were obligated to refuse illegal orders, it was Pirro who tried to indict the politicians. Her team failed to get even one member of the grand jury to go for it. And in March, a judge blocked Pirro’s attempts to subpoena Federal Reserve records as part of her investigation into Jerome Powell. Trump has seemingly forgiven her these setbacks, telling Terris, “She was put into an area that was very tough and unfair. Judges who are haters. Almost impossible to win a case.” An administration official says that Pirro calls the president regularly. But Pirro bristles at the implication that she lacks independence from Trump. “I have 32 years in this business; I’m not some fly-by-night dilettante who decided that she’s going to be a prosecutor because she’s good-looking or because she speaks well.” Could Pirro be the next attorney general? Read Terris’s full profile: nymag.visitlink.me/8mcj_J

Will Lewis arrived at the Washington Post with a lot of swagger and much goodwill. Two years later, the paper is in tatters. Charlotte Klein reports on how it all went so wrong. nymag.com/intelligencer/arti…