White House breaks ground on Trump projects to pave over Rose Garden grass, add flagpoles to lawns

[mahatmakanejeeves]

White House breaks ground on Trump projects to pave over Rose Garden grass, add flagpoles to lawns

The Associated Press
June 9, 2025, 2:31 PM


President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, June 9, 2025, in Washington. The Washington Monument is seen in background. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)(AP/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House broke ground Monday on construction projects ordered by President Donald Trump to pave over the grass in the Rose Garden and install flagpoles on the north and south lawns.

The projects are part of a series of personal touches that Trump, a real estate developer turned politician, has added or is adding to the Executive Mansion and its grounds since he opened his second term in January. The projects also include new artwork of himself on walls and gold-toned flourishes in the Oval Office. He also wants to add a ballroom.

Reporters on Monday noticed that work had begun in the Rose Garden, just off the Oval Office on the south grounds, when they were taken out to the South Lawn to wait for Trump to return on the Marine One helicopter from an overnight at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

Photos showed that a limestone border that first lady Melania Trump had added during a Rose Garden renovation project in her husband’s first term had been removed in some places and the grass had been dug up in others spots.

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