Trump remaking Rose Garden like Mar-a-Lago
WASHINGTON—Instead of new roses, the White House Rose Garden on the watch of US President Donald Trump is growing statues, as he turns the historic outdoor space into a look-alike of the one at his Mar-a-Lago home and private club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump put statues of some of America’s founders in the garden just off the Oval Office after he replaced its plush lawn with a white stone patio.
At least one statue was a gift, while others are on loan from people who wish to remain anonymous.
The latest addition, a bronze depiction of a seated Thomas Jefferson signing the Declaration of Independence, was a gift from George Lundeen, a sculptor from Loveland, Colorado. It joins statues already displayed there of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Ben Franklin.
Other construction projects
Details on the other statues added to the Rose Garden are relatively sparse.
The statues are part of Trump’s sweeping series of White House renovations, from his gilded makeover of the Oval Office to the ballroom and helipad that the Republican president is having built on the south grounds.
These projects fit into Trump’s broader plan to leave his mark on downtown Washington through other construction projects, including a statue garden on federal land near the National Mall.
At his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump has on display a 7-foot (2.1-meter) bronze sculpture by Lundeen depicting him with his fist raised after the 2024 assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The statue was given to Trump by Anthony Constantino, a businessman and Republican congressional candidate from New York.
Missed messages
Lundeen said he made the sculpture of Jefferson, the third US president, decades ago and kept it at his ranch until he decided to spruce it up and send it to Trump in time for July Fourth celebrations of America’s 250th birthday.
Steven Barber, his friend and collaborator, had reached out to White House contacts on Lundeen’s behalf.
“I thought it would just be a real nice thing on the 250th for people to look at Thomas Jefferson as he was writing the Declaration of Independence,” Lundeen said in a telephone interview.
But the statue did not get to the White House in time. Barber said it was stuck on a truck partly because of heavy security around the celebratory events.
Trump was shown photos and liked the sculpture so much that he decided to put it in the Rose Garden.
When the president called Lundeen to thank him, he got voicemail. After the holiday, Lundeen’s office manager insisted he listened to one message in particular.
“Hi, George. It’s your favorite president, Donald Trump, and I just wanted to thank you,” the president said on the recording, which Lundeen shared with The Associated Press (AP).
“The sculpture, it looks really beautiful … just by the picture I can see it’s really incredible, and we have a wonderful place right in the Rose Garden, and I appreciate it.”
Barber said he had been calling the White House for months to discuss the statue, but got little in the way of a response until about three weeks before Independence Day with a “flurry of emails saying they wanted it.”
