‘The hottest place to be’: Trump turns White House Rose Garden into ‘club’

It was conceived by first lady Edith Roosevelt in 1903, got its name 10 years later from Ellen Wilson, wife of the 28th US president, Woodrow Wilson, and was redesigned for ceremonies under Jackie Kennedy in the 1960s.

The White House Rose Garden is an iconic outdoor space nestled alongside the West Wing and Oval Office, and for decades has hosted bill-signing ceremonies, press conferences, award presentations and formal dinners.

But under President Donald Trump, the garden has been given a different look – and a new name. It is now “the Rose Garden Club”, and had been set to welcome tech leaders for a presidential dinner on Thursday night until bad weather intervened.

“The Rose Garden Club at the White House is the hottest place to be in Washington, or perhaps the world,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said. “The president looks forward to welcoming top business, political and tech leaders for this dinner and the many dinners to come on the new, beautiful Rose Garden patio.”

Paraphernalia spotted at the White House on a rainy Thursday afternoon also bore the name “Rose Garden Club”. It is a fitting rebrand by a president who already has his own club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, and numerous golf clubs around the US and the world.

Indeed, Trump has set about remaking much of the White House as he sees fit, including redecorating the Oval Office with gold furnishings, installing additional flag poles and building a ballroom off the East Wing, which is in the planning stages.

The Rose Garden (Club) was renovated over summer, the grass paved over with stone, and outdoor tables and seating installed – more reminiscent of the Mar-a-Lago patio than the green garden of Kennedy’s time.

Rain compelled Trump to move Thursday night’s intimate dinner indoors to the State Dining Room, meaning the new-look Rose Garden will have to wait one more night for its post-reno debut (another event is scheduled for Friday evening).

Tech titans who attended the dinner included Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who sat next to Trump, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who sat beside first lady Melania Trump, Apple chief executive Tim Cook and Open AI boss Sam Altman.

In a brief and at-times confusing Q&A session with journalists, Trump declined to say whether he would accept Friday’s employment figures – the first since he sensationally fired the former head of the labour statistics bureau after she delivered a weak jobs report a month ago.

“We’ll see, I don’t know, they come out tomorrow,” Trump said. “The real numbers that I’m talking about are going to be whatever it is, but will be in a year from now when these monstrous huge beautiful places, they’re palaces of genius, and when they start opening up I think you’ll see job numbers that are going to be absolutely incredible.”

Asked about the appearance of his health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr before a congressional committee, where Kennedy was grilled over his vaccine scepticism and the turmoil at US health agencies, Trump praised Kennedy for having ideas that were “a little different”.

“He’s got a different take, and we want to listen to all of those takes,” he said. “I heard he did very well today. But it’s not your standard talk, and that has to do with medical and vaccines. But if you look at what’s going on in the world with health, and look at this country also with regard to health, I like the fact that he’s different.”

Zuckerberg declined to answer a question about the United Kingdom’s censorship of social media posts – which could also have applied to Australia – instead passing the query to Trump, who expressed his displeasure about the UK’s approach.

“Strange things are happening over there,” he said. “I’m very surprised to see what’s happening … it’s not a good thing.”

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