President Donald Trump used $689,232 in taxpayer funds from the National Park Service to fund his White House walkway replacement — after claiming he would pay for the project himself — a Friday report from The Atlantic shows.

The magazine’s Michael Scherer wrote that budget documents he obtained show the federal government, not Trump personally, paid to replace the West Colonnade walkway connecting the White House residence to the Oval Office with “polished African granite, carved in Italy.” The records directly contradict Trump’s public assertion in March that the project was “Paid for by me.”

According to The Atlantic, the $689,232 in taxpayer funds for the walkway replacement was included in a broader $1.3 million project that also covered repairs to nearby stonework and masonry as well as new hardware for surrounding doors. The outlet also reported that the Park Service spent another $347,503 last year on a separate White House colonnade project requested by Trump, labeled “Rush project at request of POTUS.”

The report says the spending reflects a broader shift in National Park Service priorities, with money increasingly flowing to projects around the White House and Washington, D.C., while parks across the country lose funding. Internal budget records reviewed by The Atlantic indicate that more than 900 projects expected to receive funding this year ultimately did not, including maintenance work at Yellowstone, funding for Acadia National Park’s free shuttle system, and a guardrail replacement project at Colorado’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park that documents described as addressing a “significant safety hazard for visitors.”

Additionally, taxpayer spending on projects in the National Capital Region increased 92 percent over the past year, according to the budget documents.

“The president is prioritizing D.C. at the expense of parks throughout the country,” Emily Douce, a lobbyist for the National Parks Conservation Association, told the magazine. “There is $24 billion of maintenance needs throughout the National Park Service system, and adding these new vanity projects just adds to the need.”

An unidentified Interior Department spokesperson defended the administration’s spending in a statement to The Atlantic, saying, “The National Park Service has not only been focused on beautifying the district for the 250th celebrations in our nation’s capital but has also been working on many deferred maintenance projects throughout the country.”

According to the report, the White House did not respond to questions about the source of funding for the new West Colonnade paving stones.

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