A month ago, Melania Trump announced plans to redesign the famous White House Rose Garden, an area of the White House grounds which gets a lot of camera-time. The WH Rose Garden is adjacent to the Oval Office and the sweeping pathway running alongside the West Wing. In the early 1960s, Jackie Kennedy worked with some of the best garden-designers in the country to lay out a beautiful garden full of what I thought were cherry trees (cherry trees are seen throughout DC, many of which were gifts from Japan) but are in fact crab apple trees, I guess. Jackie’s garden also had tulips, rose bushes, irises, violets and more. The Jackie Kennedy-designed garden was a riot of color in the spring and summer, and the trees provided shade and relative privacy along that covered West Wing walkway.

I said at the time that it sounded like the garden had to be dug up anyway, because there was a need to make technical improvements. As in, the electric cables had to be updated underground, and a better drainage system had to be added. So I understand why *technically* they would have needed to dig up part of the garden. But Melania decided to put her gothic-horror stamp on it. I guess we should be glad that she didn’t want Blood Trees of Doom. That being said, ripping out the cherry trees SUCKS. And it also sucks that Melania’s garden aesthetic matches her husband’s racism – only white flowers allowed in the Rose Garden now.

Before and after photographs of newly renovated White House Rose Garden:
courtesy #Getty and @marycjordan pic.twitter.com/w6bzoNHMjC

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) August 22, 2020

New Rose Garden just unveiled- crabapple trees gone, greater emphasis on the White House columns. pic.twitter.com/h13UikntbE

— Mary Jordan (@marycjordan) August 22, 2020

Those were Jackie Kennedy's crabapple tree's. Many of those rose bushes were from ALL the First Ladies of America, going all the way back to Ellen Louise Wilson in 1913… pic.twitter.com/fr6E1utEUp

— Tryingtosurvivethepurge (@Trying2P) August 22, 2020

Excited to honor history & celebrate the future in our beautiful @WhiteHouse Rose Garden this evening. Thank you to all who helped renew this iconic & truly gorgeous space. pic.twitter.com/ggiqLkdGbw

— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) August 22, 2020

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmb29na4Rxe8yeo5qmmZastb7UpqeYqpmlvaawvqisrZealrCstcSYop6mnpqxur%2B%2BnKalp6Kbwq2rxpqpnZ2elLOwvr6apZiZnKF6uLTIrZyYq56kvLuxxZ6qrWc%3D