CBS’s Ed O’Keefe Presses Trump On Using Foreign Granite In White House Construction

CBS’s Ed O’Keefe pressed President Donald Trump on his administration’s use of foreign granite in White House construction projects while in the Oval Office on Thursday.

As he fielded questions from the press, the president revealed his administration is adding granite to his White House improvements. He directed reporters to look outside as he explained some of the construction and “big, big beautification.”

“We’re putting magnificent new granite, charcoal, black granite, against the white, beautiful white walls, and we’ve stripped all of the paint off,” he said. “We had 200 years of paint, and we’ve redone it, and it’s beautiful. And you can see the building, but you can also see the columns and everything else, but we’re replacing it … You see the large slabs of black granite. Granite is rated as, this particular granite, at over a million year life. As an example, concrete gets rated for about 200 years if you get very high grade. Can you imagine, nature produces something better than you can make? So, it’s very interesting. It’s a beautiful job they are doing. And it’s highly polished granite in the areas you don’t walk on, and it’s called flame-finished, so if you do walk on it, there is no slip.”

As the reporters were being ushered out of the Oval Office upon the conclusion of the press conference, O’Keefe stopped in front of the president’s desk to inquire about the new granite’s origins: “Where did the granite come from?”

Trump informed him it came from Italy as O’Keefe quizzed, “From Italy? So it’s Italian granite?”

The president explained in further detail.

“Well, it came from Italy, it was carved in Italy, it came from another location,” he said. You know where the location is? Africa.”

“So you have African and Italian granite outside the Oval Office?” O’Keefe dug further.

“Yeah, is that okay?” Trump asked.

“I’m just asking,” O’Keefe claimed as he left the Oval Office.

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