New Photos Show Gravel Laid Over White House Rose Garden As Trump Reno Takes Root

6 days ago 1

New photos of President Donald Trump’s promised makeover of the White House Rose Garden show the area as never seen before.

The Rose Garden reno promised by President Donald Trump was underway on June 20.

Images taken Friday showed the garden’s vast lawn covered in gravel as workers continued the renovation that began earlier this month. Trump had previously vowed to pave over the Rose Garden, bemoaning the dampness of the grass and saying the soft ground made it difficult for women to walk in high heels.

Trump has long complained about the Rose Garden's sometimes soggy grass.

The changes to the garden, which is frequently used for White House press events, are a dramatic sequel to those spearheaded by first lady Melania Trump during her husband’s first term.

A view of the White House Rose Garden following Melania Trump's renovations in August 2020.

Melania Trump’s widely criticized 2020 renovation involved removing a large portion of the garden’s vegetation — including its beloved crab apple trees — and planting new rose bushes.

A groundskeeper waters flowers in the Rose Garden in July 2021 — around a year post-Melania Trump's renovation — after many of the new plantings had continued to grow.

The Rose Garden was first established in 1903 for first lady Edith Roosevelt. In 1962, celebrated gardener Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon oversaw a major redesign of the space for President John F. Kennedy.

A portion of the White House Rose Garden in April 1963.

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Prior to the 2020 overhaul, other administrations had made only minor tweaks to the garden since the Kennedy era.