President Donald Trump has fenced off Lafayette Square outside the White House as a months-long “beautification” project begins in one of America’s most symbolic public parks. Tourists’ usual first stop on the walk up to the White House is now closed after crews ringed the 7-acre park with fencing.

The National Park Service's after-action report - released under the Freedom of Information Act - shows the failure to improve security for the permitted event followed a similar protest in the same park just months before that forced the Biden White House to evacuate staffers.

Officials said Lafayette Square, the public park next to the White House, will be improved as part of Trump’s America 250 celebration.

President Donald Trump’s agenda to beautify the country’s capital ahead of the United States’s 250th anniversary of independence is taking shape just across from the White House. In keeping with Trump’s January executive order,

Construction of the White House's planned $300 million ballroom is expected to be completed in the summer of 2028, just months before President Trump leaves office, according to an environmental assessment prepared by the National Park Service in late August.