Under a nearly-60-year-old law, the White House and several other notable buildings are exempt from a key historic preservation rule - though one expert told the BBC that presidents typically follow it anyway. Trump's renovation appears to be the biggest in decades, but the president of the US does have the power to make those changes.

Johnson has kept the House indefinitely out of session until Democrats vote to end the government shutdown, a strategy that has made some in his caucus anxious, but the speaker has insisted that Republicans are still very much engaged in the people’s business, even if it is off the floor.