President Trump has claimed his newly paved Rose Garden is receiving “great reviews” after unveiling the highly criticized design last week.
The plush White House lawn in the centre of the garden has now been paved over with white stones to create a large patio that mirrors Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
In his brand new Washington patio, the seal of the president of the United States features on the edges of the paving, near the drainage.
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Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said he was already getting positive feedback on the paving work, which began in June.
“We’re getting great reviews on the Rose Garden,” he stated, without clarifying who the reviews were coming from.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
The renovation to the Rose Garden was finalized and and unveiled on Friday. The work was overseen by the National Park Service and funded by the Trust for the National Mall, according to Vogue.
The president also shared his inspiration for the choice of pavers in the historic 7,500 square foot area near the South Lawn.
“It’s a beautiful white stone,” Trump gushed. “It’s a stone that’s the same color as the White House itself. And because it’s very white, it’s going to reflect the heat. It’s not going to be very hot like if you had a dark stone.”
The original design of the Rose Garden, with the large central grass panel, was created in 1962 at the request of President John F. Kennedy.
However, Trump said the grass was impractical for press conferences, as women complained their heels were sinking into the lawn.
“We’re going to make that into a stone surface”, stating that women were “going crazy, the grass was wet, their heels are going right through the grass, like four inches deep,” he told The Spectator in February.
“We had to do it,” Trump said Sunday, reiterating how people would “sink” into the grass. ”It’d take three, four, five days for it to dry out, and we couldn‘t use it for really the intended purpose," Trump said. “So whether they had events or they had news conferences, we couldn‘t use it.”
Previous administrations have tinkered with the Rose Garden, from Ronald Reagan swapping out varieties of roses to the Obamas installing a kitchen garden.
In 2020, Melania Trump switched colorful cherry trees and tulips for a more muted tone in line with the original palette of horticulturist Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, who redesigned the garden during the Kennedy administration.
Trump has not finished leaving his stamp on the White House and making it more like Mar-a-Lago. As well as adding his beloved gold ornaments and finishes, last week the president announced he would build a $100 million ballroom inside the White House.
He also claimed he was the perfect president to handle the construction.
“It’s a very incredible structure, it’s going to be beautiful, normally I could build a building like that in 4 or 5 months,” Trump said on Pod Force One.
“But it’s very intricate inside, it’s beautiful, the best marbles, it’ll be a great tribute to the White House. Other presidents have talked about it but it never got done. I’m the builder. I know how to do it.”
