The president has called Lafayette Square “the entrance to the White House.” Contractors have been renovating the park for months and are likely to miss Trump’s original goal of reopening before July 4.
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President Donald Trump in recent months has cultivated a side project: counting the number of trees in a public park across the street from the White House.
Under Trump’s plans for Lafayette Square, which he has previously described as “the entrance to the White House,” the public park would feature 47 trees, matching his status as the nation’s 47th president, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail the administration’s plans for the park. The trees would all be maples, a favorite of the president’s.
The park has historically contained several dozen trees, although some have been taken out during renovations. It’s unclear how many additional trees Trump would plant to get to 47 and whether he would remove any existing trees as part of his effort. Officials cautioned that as with Trump’s other building and design projects — which they have acknowledged he has tended to micromanage — nothing is final until the president formally announces it.
Lafayette Square is just north of the White House complex and, as part of President’s Park, is managed by the National Park Service. Contractors have been renovating the park since January, and Trump has extolled their work to fix the park’s fountains and overhaul its grounds.
“If you walk across the street to Lafayette Park, you’ll see something that’s incredible,” Trump said in the Oval Office on June 3. “We’ll have it open before July Fourth.”
That’s not likely to happen — the park is not on target to open until at least August, according to the people with knowledge of the park’s plans.
The White House and the Interior Department declined to comment on Trump’s plans for Lafayette Square, the project’s funding and when the park would reopen. The administration is also planning to install a new fence on two sides of the park, a security measure long sought by the Secret Service.
“Thanks to President Trump, Lafayette Park is finally being restored to its former glory on behalf of the American people,” Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement.
“This project in Lafayette Park is well overdue, and we are grateful the President is prioritizing such an iconic space ahead of America’s 250th,” the Interior Department said in a statement. “The way this contract was awarded is above board.”
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The president’s plans to memorialize his presidency in tree form, which have not previously been reported, represent one more way that Trump is seeking to put his imprint on the White House and its grounds. Trump has torn down the East Wing to begin building his planned ballroom, paved over the Rose Garden, installed new statues, and overhauled the Palm Room and the colonnade outside the West Wing, among other projects.
Trump has claimed that he made a multimillion-dollar contribution to Lafayette Square’s renovations, but he has not provided evidence of his gift. The administration has not publicly posted contracting documents for the project. The administration also did not present its plans for Lafayette Square to federal review panels before beginning its work.
Trump, a real estate developer before entering politics, has a long history of picking out trees for his projects and has expressed particular fondness for maple trees.
He planted a maple on the White House’s South Lawn in April 2020 as part of a ceremony marking Earth Day and Arbor Day.
“That’s a beautiful straight trunk,” Trump said, admiring the tree. “That’s a triple-A tree. That’s great.”
Four years later, Trump praised maple trees during a round of golf with professional golfer Bryson DeChambeau.
“You have the nicest trees in the country,” Trump said in the video, which was organized as part of his presidential campaign that year. “Look at that. That’s a maple right there.”
“Regime Change,” a new book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, also describes a scene earlier this year in which Trump’s desk in the Oval Office contained printouts of maple trees he was ordering for the White House.
“I know how to buy good trees. Maples,” Trump told the reporters, according to the book.
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