‘We Want to Have a Good Standard’: Trump on Plan to Revamp Federal Architecture

‘We want to see beautiful buildings,’ the president said at the White House.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office on Sept. 2, 2025. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Sept. 2 spoke about an executive order he signed last week to order the use of the classical style in federal building architecture, saying his goal was to set “a good standard.”

“We want to see beautiful buildings,” Trump said during a White House press conference in response to a question from NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times. “We want to have a good standard. We’re building something here.”

In an Aug. 28 executive order aimed at “[making] federal architecture beautiful again,” Trump ordered the federal government to favor classical architecture in designing, renovating, or reducing new or existing federal buildings.

“Federal public buildings should uplift and beautify public spaces, inspire the human spirit, ennoble the United States, and command respect from the general public,” Trump wrote in the executive order.

Federal buildings affected by the order include courthouses, agency headquarters, all federal buildings in Washington, and all other projects that cost or are expected to cost more than $50 million in 2025.

The order defines such architecture as “the architectural tradition derived from the forms, principles, and vocabulary of the architecture of Greek and Roman antiquity” and contrasts it with the brutalist style that has been popular for federal building design since the mid-20th century.

Brutalist architecture makes heavy use of exposed, monochrome building materials such as concrete and brick. The executive order states that this architectural style is “characterized by a massive and block-like appearance with a rigid geometric style and large-scale use of exposed poured concrete.”

A fact sheet from the White House describes the order as part of a larger effort to make “America beautiful again.”

Beautifying Washington

Speaking at the press conference, Trump fit the change into his greater goal to “beautify” Washington following his federalization of Washington police and deployment of the National Guard.

Under the August executive order, Washington will be required to use such architecture in the absence of “exceptional factors necessitating another kind of architecture.”

“We have a lot of interesting things happening architecturally in D.C.,” Trump said, noting that contractors had told him that they feel safer in Washington since the federal government took over law enforcement in the city.

“Washington D.C. is great. Now we’re going to also beautify it.”

The president said the beautification efforts will include repairing roads, removing graffiti, and fixing tiles inside the city’s tunnels.

He said these efforts will extend “about a 20-mile radius from the White House.”

“We’re going to have this place spick and span,” he said. “It’s going to be crime-free, and it’s going to be spick and span. You'll be proud of Washington again.”