Reports that President Donald Trump is eyeing a makeover of the White House’s iconic Rose Garden to make room for a Mar-a-Lago-like patio space sent political observers into a tailspin Friday night.
The latest controversy ignited as the president closes his third full week in office, with the New York Times reporting that Trump discussed with associates his desire to tear up the grass in the Rose Garden and cover it up with a solid surface.
He is weighing whether it should be “limestone or an easily interchangeable hard surface, with the possibility of installing hardwood floors for dancing,” according to the Times.
The mere thought of adding the dismantling of the Rose Garden to Trump’s list of Oval Office takedowns didn’t strike the right chord with social media users.
“Trump, the least classiest person in America, wants to rip up the White House Rose Garden and put in a patio like Mar-a-Lago,” author Mark Chadbourn wrote on Bluesky.
“I beg your pardon, he never promised us a rose garden,” comedian Paton Oswalt told his followers on Bluesky.
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“Haven’t the Trumps already destroyed the Rose Garden enough already?” self-described “political junkie” and amateur historian Russell Drew wrote on X. “And please don’t tell me that Lara Trump is going to be there to sing for the grand opening.”
While former Clinton White House official Claude Taylor summed up his feelings on Bluesky with just two words: “Despicable trash.”
“Why just a patio? Why not a hotel?” HuffPost’s senior White House correspondent S.V. Dáte told his X followers.
The White House Rose Garden was created at the direction of former first lady Jackie Kennedy.
White House communications director Steven Cheung said Trump was seeking to return the landmark building to its historical stature.
“The White House has not been given any tender, loving care in many decades, so President Trump is taking necessary steps in order to preserve and restore the greatness and glory of ‘the People’s House,’” he told the Times in a statement.