WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has been busy upending the federal government, reorienting U.S. foreign policy, threatening trade wars and winning confirmation for his Cabinet choices.
But he has managed to find time for a project closer to home: He has told associates that he wants to rip up the grass in the Rose Garden, one of the White House’s most iconic and meticulously maintained spots, and replace it with a hard surface to resemble a patio like the one he has at Mar-a-Lago.
Designers have drafted options for how to remake the surface of the Rose Garden, which sits just outside the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room. Trump has discussed whether it should be limestone or an easily interchangeable hard surface, with the possibility of installing hardwood floors for dancing, according to four people briefed on the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
The roses, apparently, will stay.
Trump has other plans for the West Wing. He wants to hang a grand chandelier from the ceiling of the Oval Office, the people briefed on the matter said.
He has already covered almost every free inch of the walls and mantle space in the Oval Office with portraits of presidents, among other images; one frame just outside the office includes the New York Post front page photo of Trump’s mug shot when he was processed after being indicted in Fulton County, Georgia.
There are also gold vases and statuettes and at least one gold figurine embedded in an elevated wall molding. The figurine was screwed into the wall by Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager at Mar-a-Lago, who traveled to Washington to perform the task, the people said.
Trump has also privately revived an idea he first pitched to Barack Obama’s advisers when the former president was in office: to build a ballroom at the White House, “like I have at Mar-a-Lago,” which Trump says would cost $100 million.
But the ballroom idea is notional so far; the Rose Garden patio space is not, and it has been the subject of almost daily discussions.
In a statement, Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, said the president was seeking to restore the building’s 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 said.
Trump has made clear to associates that he wants to re-create the patio experience at Mar-a-Lago, his members-only club and home in Palm Beach, Florida, creating a better space for entertaining guests. When he is at Mar-a-Lago, Trump spends hours of his evenings on the patio, with club members and other VIPs 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.
It is unclear what the first lady, Melania Trump, thinks of his patio plans. During his first term, she redesigned the Rose Garden. The revamp stirred controversy in part because it required an update of the irrigation system, among other items, and in part because everything involving the Trumps at the time drew criticism from some quarters. Nonetheless, she took pride in it. A spokesperson for the first lady declined to comment.
The White House has, over centuries, gone through many renovations, and it often fell into disrepair. Jacqueline Kennedy established the White House Historical Association, a private advisory entity that created guidelines for changes to the physical building that have generally been adhered to.
“I think that’s one of the greatest accomplishments of any first lady, to put those safeguards in place,” said Katherine Jellison, a professor at Ohio University who has closely followed first ladies.
Timothy Naftali, a historian at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, noted that the building’s residential spaces are out of view and presidential families often make changes there. But he said that first families have usually had an understanding “that the White House is a museum that belongs to the American people” and that “you have an obligation not to step too far outside of tradition in the public spaces.”
The White House Historical Association has no statutory authority over the premises, and the Rose Garden is outside of its mission because it is outdoors. The group’s only involvement with Melania Trump’s renovation in the first term was the acquisition of a sculpture from the White House arts collection that was placed in the garden.
It is the National Park Service, which is controlled by the Department of the Interior, that maintains the grounds, including the Rose Garden.
The first version of the Rose Garden was created by Ellen Wilson, President Woodrow Wilson’s wife, in 1913.
Many modern presidential families have put a stamp on the grounds, such as President Gerald R. Ford’s directive for an outdoor swimming pool, 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.
Naftali said the approach was consistent with Trump’s ethos as a public figure.
“The whole Trump approach to leadership is to blow up existing national elites of any kind, whether that elite is defined by taste, or money, or aesthetics,” said Naftali, saying those elites are often called the “uniparty” by Trump’s advisers. “But they mean it for not simply elected officials, but they mean in terms of national aesthetics or national traditions or norms.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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