Donald Trump has boasted his new multimillion-dollar White House helipad can double as a cocktail reception space. On Wednesday (19 August), the US president unveiled the new granite helipad on the South Lawn for the first time. "It's very exciting, very exciting, and I think it will be here for a long time,” he told reporters as he gave them a tour of the construction site. He also said the new helipad, which is aimed to be completed ahead of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington next month, would be “much better for state arrivals”. “ They can have events on it. They can have people go there for cocktails and then walk to the ballroom.”