Trump secretly replaced the Rose Garden lawn with statues of controversial figures
20 July
U.S. President Donald Trump at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., July 19, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump has been promoting a variety of makeover projects in Washington, DC, including some at the White House. One of them is a statue of the United States' third president, Thomas Jefferson, which, according to the Daily Beast, was unveiled in the White House Rose Garden last week — but without any prior announcement.
The Daily Beast's Leigh Kimmins explains, "The New York Post reported earlier this month that the work, created 25 years ago by George Lundeen, arrived at the White House at the end of June and was held for examination by security experts. Lundeen, 77, also made the 7-foot, 700-pound bronze 'fight fight fight' monument to Trump that captures his raised fist immediately following a 2024 assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania. The new work depicts Jefferson working on a draft of the Declaration of Independence. Lundeen told the Washington Post that Trump loves it so much that he sent the artist a congratulatory message. 'I just wanted to thank you. The sculpture looks really beautiful,” Trump told Lundeen."
The new work, according to Kimmins, depicts Jefferson "working on a draft of" the American Declaration of Independence.
Trump, according to Kimmins, told Lundeen, "I just wanted to thank you. The sculpture looks really beautiful."
Kimmins notes, "Trump replaced the central grass lawn with a stone patio. The Jefferson effigy is the fifth statue he has added. It joins a statue of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and a sculpture called 'Freedom's Charge,' which honors Revolutionary War soldiers."
Kimmins notes that Trump "has overseen a new outdoor statuary exhibition in downtown Washington that includes a statue of Caesar Rodney, a signer of the Declaration of Independence whose monument was removed from public view in Delaware during the 2020 protests amid criticism of his history as an enslaver."
"The display is part of a broader effort by Trump to elevate historical figures whose monuments became flashpoints during the racial justice protests, including Confederate symbols he sought to protect during his first term through executive action aimed at preserving federal monuments," Kimmins reports. "In March, he also installed a replica of a Christopher Columbus statue that had been torn down in Baltimore during the 2020 unrest on the White House grounds. Two people familiar with private conversations said Trump — who has himself been the target of repeated protests — has at times privately expressed sympathy with figures such as Columbus, who was celebrated for centuries as an explorer before becoming a flashpoint because of his role in colonization and enslavement."