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President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0will tell you: The grass is always greener on his side of the fence.<\/p>\n
And tell you. And tell you.<\/p>\n
Trump has spoken repeatedly of his prowess with green lawns since returning to the White House \u2014 at some events even spending more time talking about it than the\u00a0war in Iran, the\u00a0economy\u00a0or\u00a0November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n
It was on the president\u2019s mind just five weeks after his second inauguration, when he pointed out the Oval Office window during an interview with The Spectator. \u201cYou see the grass outside, right?\u201d Trump asked before detailing his plans to pave over much of it. \u201cSome people would like to leave it. But the problem is, you can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has kept on the topic constantly ever since, saying as recently as Monday at a White House event with military spouses: \u201cGrass is like humans. It has a life.\u201d<\/p>\n
All told, he\u2019s mentioned grass in at least 45 public events or interviews over the past 18 months \u2014 or at least once every 12 days. That doesn\u2019t include the numerous social media posts that Trump has also made on the topic.<\/p>\n
His gravitation toward grass speaks to Trump\u2019s decades as a New York real estate developer and personal love of building things and overseeing construction projects, but also to the\u00a0amount of time he spends on the golf course\u00a0and his extensive, second-term efforts to\u00a0revamp the White House\u00a0and\u00a0greater Washington\u00a0in his own image. He\u2019s already far outpaced the 26 times he mentioned grass during the entirety of his first four-year term.<\/p>\n
The White House declined to comment. But Trump has made clear where his interest in \u2014 and knowledge of \u2014 grass comes from.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses,\u201d he said while announcing the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors last August. \u201cAnd, if you don\u2019t have good grass, you\u2019re not in business very long.\u201d<\/p>\n
A week later, while visiting park police officers in Washington, the president declared, \u201cI know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump frequently touts his Washington overhaul and Rose Garden patio<\/p>\n
Matt Koch, the lawns research fellow for gardening giant Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, met recently with the president to discuss planting new grass on the White House\u2019s South Lawn. He proudly considers himself a \u201cgrass nerd\u201d and came away convinced Trump is an honorary one.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn amazing dialogue, talking grass for half an hour,\u201d Koch said of the Oval Office discussion. \u201cGoing back and forth about grass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has managed to bring up grass at events as varied as the signing of\u00a0an executive order on TikTok\u00a0and the 2025 White House\u00a0celebration\u00a0of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. He mentioned it while\u00a0pardoning turkeys\u00a0last Thanksgiving, while addressing the\u00a0World Economic Forum\u00a0in Switzerland, and while signing a directive on quantum technology.<\/p>\n
Last September, while hosting Republican lawmakers for dinner, he pledged of green spaces around Washington, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna re-grass them with the best guys in the country.\u201d That same month, during an event\u00a0announcing the intended renaming\u00a0of the Department of Defense, Trump assured attendees, \u201cI\u2019m very good at grass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump most frequently mentions grass while promoting his Washington beautification efforts. In May, he spent\u00a010 minutes\u00a0of a Cabinet meeting detailing his efforts to fix fountains and give D.C.\u2019s parks and monuments a facelift \u2014 sometimes sounding more like a small-town mayor than the leader of the free world.<\/p>\n
Ironically, the president brings up the topic while defending his decisions to remove grass for new construction \u2014 like when he covered the lawn near the White House\u2019s Rose Garden with a stone patio.<\/p>\n
\u201cProblem with the grass, you couldn\u2019t do anything with it,\u201d he said during a 2025 Oval Office tour for hosts of the \u201cAll-In\u201d podcast.<\/p>\n
The president also frequently recounts that hordes of women, including journalists, Cabinet members and administration officials, used to complain to him about their high heels getting stuck in the mud in the old, grassy Rose Garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe women would be lifting up their shoes, saying, \u2018You\u2019ve destroyed my shoes,\u2019\u201d he said during a luncheon last fall. When hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers in July, he relayed that women in heels \u201cwould go down like quicksand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s helipad is wiping out even more grass<\/p>\n
Erecting a\u00a0UFC octagon\u00a0to mark his 80th birthday in June reduced large swaths of the South Lawn to dusty dirt. In the weeks since, crews have been building a sprawling helicopter landing pad, meaning even more grass has been removed from the lawn.<\/p>\n
Trump said the helipad was needed because the new, more powerful fleet of helicopters now being used as Marine One tore up the previous sod.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you land on the grass, it\u2019s not that the grass gets discolored \u2014 it gets ripped out,\u201d he said in June. Trump even described tufts of turf going \u201call over\u201d and said, \u201cHalf of the grass was sitting in front of the Oval Office front door.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scotts Miracle-Gro donated $1 million in monetary and product support to the National Park Service to restore the South Lawn after the UFC fight, and Trump used the meeting with Koch in June to select a custom turfgrass blend of four kinds of tall fescues and four Kentucky bluegrasses. The company\u2019s CEO, James Hagedorn, is a Trump supporter.<\/p>\n
Trump, Koch said, asked good, detailed questions as he was shown carpet sample-like swaths of each grass variety.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can tell he spends a lot of time on golf courses,\u201d Koch said. \u201cHe obviously owns courses, and he knows grass from being around it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Koch returned to the White House last week as crews began resodding some areas of the White House lawn outside the helipad construction area. There are plans next spring to plant seeds from the grass blend Trump selected. By then, growth will be optimal, and the helipad work should be complete, making the lawn restoration easier.<\/p>\n
Many golfers are obsessed with grass<\/p>\n
Also key to the president\u2019s grass fixation is his\u00a0love of golf.<\/p>\n
Bert McCarty, a Clemson University professor of turfgrass science and management, said golfers like how top courses are so different \u2014 from incorporating the ocean in places near beaches to relying on inclines in the mountains.<\/p>\n
Trump, McCarty said, is \u201clike most golfers. He likes the challenge of the course and the differences of the course to add variety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last August, Trump pledged that, after his administration\u2019s various improvements, parks in Washington will \u201clook like Augusta\u201d \u2014 a reference to the home of the iconic Masters tournament, where aesthetics are so important that bags from the pro shop and food wrappers are green so that any possible litter blends in with the grass during TV broadcasts.<\/p>\n
McCarty said most people \u201clook at the beautiful flowers and the striped-up fairways, and they just think it\u2019s heaven.\u201d But \u201cAugusta basically spares no expense to achieve the look they\u2019re after,\u201d he added, and municipalities \u201ccan\u2019t compete with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cost aside, though, Trump may be thinking even bigger than Augusta, pointing to his own golf course in Northern Virginia.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll look like, more importantly, Trump National Golf Club,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s even better.\u201d<\/p>\n
#Trumps #grass #obsession #leads #White #House #summit #Scotts #MiracleGro #amazing #dialogue #talking #grass #hour<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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