-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Former First Lady Melania Trump touted her widely-panned 2020 renovation of the White House Rose Garden in a video posted to X on Friday. The renovation, which consisted of tearing up cherry blossom and crabapple trees and replacing historic rose varietals with more muted strains in a dramatic re-work, drew intense scrutiny from historians and gardening enthusiasts for its destruction of the historically significant and iconic botanical display. “When the Committee for the Preservation of the White House asked me to renovate the Rose Garden, I felt a deep responsibility to respect tradition,” Trump said in the video, despite reports that renovations were completed for use in the 2020 Republican National Convention.
“In my book, I share the story of this journey: how my team and I worked to safeguard this piece of our history.” Related The play behind Melania Trump's delayed defense of her nude pictures Evisceration of White House Rose Garden was completed a year ago this month, and here was the grim result—decades of American history made to disappear: @dougmillsnyt pic.twitter.
com/78OqjkoOPt — Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) August 7, 2021 Following the changes, Trump defended the new look and called criticism from presidential historian Michael Beschloss “misleading” and “dishonorable,” prompting another wave of backlash against the historic gutting. The garden was the subject of a petition in 2021 begging First L.