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WASHINGTON — <\/span>President Donald Trump<\/a> played White House tour guide on Wednesday, showing off the helipad<\/a> he is building on the lawn before leaning over to autograph a piece of it and bragging about the ballroom<\/a> he’s rushing to complete despite legal challenges<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump gushed for several uninterrupted minutes about granite being laid and said the chopper landing area would leave visiting foreign leaders \u201cvery impressed\u201d \u2014 including Chinese President Xi Jinping<\/a>, who is coming next month.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n \u201cThat’s stone that, if you took a hammer and you started hammering right now \u2014 all day long \u2014 you wouldn’t see a mark on it, literally, that’s the kind of power it is,\u201d Trump said, at times straining to be heard over the thrum of ongoing work behind him. <\/p>\n The president also revealed 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.<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing I know how to do is build,\u201d he said, asserting that asphalt is \u201cnot appropriate for a great house, or a great place like the White House.\u201d He said that, had he instead merely used \u201creally powerful concrete,” it would have supported \u201djust a tiny fraction of that in terms of strength.\u201d<\/p>\n The president is called upon to fill many roles as president, but embraces none with as much zeal as managing various building projects to mold the White House<\/a> and large swatches of Washington<\/a> in his own image, seeming happiest recalling his days as a real estate developer. <\/p>\n Trump also likes to show off his handiwork and having the White House press pool on hand at all times gives him a readymade audience. Last year, he made an appearance on the roof of the briefing room<\/a> to survey a future work site, and earlier this summer, he took reporters for a closer look at the ballroom<\/a> construction site.<\/p>\n It suggests Trump remains focused on such projects, even as his war in Iran<\/a> nears the six-month mark, his approval ratings sink<\/a> with just 2 1\/2 months to go before critical midterm elections, and as voters are increasingly worried about a weakening economy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump drove home just how important the construction projects are to him, calling the work \u201cvery exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis will be here long after we\u2019re gone,\u201d Trump said of the projects. \u201cNo matter what happens with the world.\u201d<\/p>\n But whether it will endure after he leaves office remains to be seen. Trump once suggested that his refurbishing of the Lincoln Memorial\u2019s Reflecting Pool<\/a> would last a century, only for the paint to fade<\/a> and its liner to peel away in chunks just days after it was laid.<\/p>\n The president has increasingly insisted that the $400 million ballroom will add security to the White House and include things like anti-drone technology. His administration even unsuccessfully sought $1 billion<\/a> in congressional funding to make military improvements to the structure. <\/p>\n \u201cThis will be the greatest military complex slash ballroom anywhere in the world,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Trump also scoffed at court orders seeking to block its construction without congressional approval, saying work is continuing regardless and predicting that the Supreme Court will eventually side with him and allow the project to be completed. <\/p>\n The president found time to talk again about one of his favorite subjects of late<\/a> \u2014 grass \u2014 and praised at length Scotts-Miracle Gro. The company’s former CEO is a Trump supporter, and it donated $1 million to repair the grass on the White House lawn after it was damaged by Trump’s UFC fight<\/a> marking his 80th birthday in June and by the helipad construction. <\/p>\n At one point on Wednesday, Trump signed the back of one of the granite stones that was marked \u201cDonald Trump 45-47 president\u201d for the occasion. Its front is shaped like an eagle and will be laid into the helipad’s presidential seal once work is completed. <\/p>\n \u201cI thought this would be a little different kind of a news conference,\u201d the president said. \u201cWe were going to sign this privately and just put it in. I said, \u2018This is something I think the press should see,\u2019 and I hope you liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump had some of the construction workers sign the granite, too, and joked about leaving it upside-down so that his signature would be visible for future generations. <\/p>\n \u201cNice job, fellas,\u201d he told the workers. \u201cDoes anybody know the word media?\u201d<\/p>\n Trump also confirmed Wednesday that he’d delayed ongoing work on the helipad to ensure the project could be regraded to lay flatter. <\/p>\n He said that the granite used \u201chas a million-year life\u201d and predicted that it \u201cwill never break. It will never leak. It will never do anything” \u2014 which would mark a departure from the problem-plagued Reflecting Pool project. <\/p>\n \u201cNature is stronger than what the human can produce,\u201d Trump said of the granite. \u201cIt\u2019s really pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n