Trump Reportedly Wants to Replace Rose Garden Grass With Patio Like at Mar-a-Lago

House Select Committee via AP

President Donald Trump has reportedly been in talks with those close to him about tearing up with well-manicured grass in the White House Rose Garden.

According to The New York Times, Trump wants to preserve the roses but would rather have a patio such as the one at his Mar-a-Lago resort and residence. Among Trump’s complaints about the Rose Garden, per the newspaper, is Trump’s guests have no place for dancing. The Times reported:

Mr. Trump has made clear to associates that he wants to recreate the patio experience at Mar-a-Lago, his members-only club and home in Palm Beach, Fla., creating a better space for entertaining guests. When he is at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump spends hours of his evenings on the patio, with club members and other V.I.P.s dropping by his table to pay their respects. He often holds an iPad, controlling the playlist and blasting Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown at earsplitting volumes.

Trump has reportedly already been in talks with designers about whether a contractor could lie down “limestone” over the grass in the Rose garden or some other “easily interchangeable hard surface.”

The president has also reportedly discussed building a ballroom “like I have at Mar-a-Lago” for the White House that could cost upwards of $100 million.

Videos of Trump entertaining guests at his South Florida home often go viral on social media:

Plans for a ballroom were described by the Times as “notional,” while tearing out the grass in the Rose Garden is seriously being considered. The Times further reported:

The first version of the Rose Garden was created by Ellen Wilson, President Woodrow Wilson’s wife, in 1913. Many modern presidents put some form of a stamp on the grounds, such as President Gerald R. Ford’s directive for an outdoor swimming pool, President Barack Obama’s basketball court and Michelle Obama’s South Lawn food garden. But remodeling the Rose Garden to take away the grass, even while apparently preserving the plantings that give it its name, would be a jarring change from tradition.

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