President Trump Actually Paved Over the Rose Garden

The iconic White House Rose Garden is now more of a rose display area after President Donald Trump paved over the grass expanse.

Trump discussed his plans for the space, which sits outside the Oval Office, when he gave Fox News personality Laura Ingraham a White House tour in March. At the time, some construction was underway and Trump explained that he felt ditching the greenery would improve events in the space.

“Every event you have, it’s soaking wet, it’s soaking wet, and people can’t — and the women with the high heels, it just didn’t work,” Trump said.

Trump further added that “people fall into the wet” and declared, “grass, it just doesn’t work.”

Now, as the gallery below shows, the grass has been replaced with paving stones.

The Rose Garden was established by First Lady Ellen Wilson in 1913. It was redesigned by Jacqueline Kennedy in 1962. Since then, the space has been the backdrop for everything from the wedding of President Richard Nixon’s daughter, Pat, to President Jimmy Carter’s Mideast peace talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Anwar Sadat, to President Barack Obama’s “Beer Summit.”

In Trump’s first term, the Rose Garden played host to many memorable moments including former White House aide Sebastian Gorka’s screaming match with a Playboy reporter, a ceremony unveiling Trump’s nomination of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, which became a superspreader event that caused a COVID outbreak throughout the government, and the indelible photo of the president appearing to shout at the little lawn mower boy. So many incredible memories.

While the roses ringing the space will remain, with the work nearly finished, we are now getting to see the results of Trump’s paved over makeover. Various critics have largely offered scathing reviews, but Trump, perhaps with visions of clicking high heels in his head, was confident of his vision when he discussed it earlier this year.

“I think it’s going to be beautiful. I think it’s going to be more beautiful,” Trump said.

See for yourself below.

Sept. 2017: Donald Trump and the lawn mower kid, a memorable Rose Garden moment(Photo by MIKE THEILER/AFP via Getty Images)

May 1, 2025: One of the last official events in the Rose GardenPresident Donald Trump speaks during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden at the White House on May 1, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

May 19, 2025President Donald Trump looks on as First Lady Melania Trump speaks during a bill signing ceremony for the “Take It Down Act” in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 19, 2025. The bipartisan legislation would criminalize the non-consenual publication of sexual imagery, including AI-generated deepfakes and “revenge porn.” (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

June 9, 2025: Workers break groundUS President Donald Trump speaks with a labor crew working in the Rose Garden of the White House on June 9, 2025, in Washington, DC, as he returns to the White House from Camp David, Maryland. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)