{"id":4775,"date":"2026-06-22T21:06:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=4775"},"modified":"2026-06-22T21:06:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:06:36","slug":"trump-supporters-company-pledges-1-million-to-fix-white-house-lawn-after-ufc-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=4775","title":{"rendered":"Trump supporter\u2019s company pledges $1 million to fix White House lawn after UFC event"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Crews take down the UFC fighting venue on the South Lawn of the White House on June 19. (Aaron Schwartz\/Reuters)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

A private company run by a supporter of President Donald Trump has pledged $1 million to restore the grass on the South Lawn of the White House after it was destroyed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship event held there earlier this month.<\/p>

Read more Heavy rain, possible flooding forecast for New Jersey area around Norway-Senegal World Cup match<\/a><\/p>\n

The White House announced last week that ScottsMiracle-Gro, an Ohio-based company, will commit $1 million to restore the South Lawn after the UFC event held on Trump\u2019s 80th birthday left it heavily damaged. The company said it is donating \u201ca combination of monetary and product support,\u201d including re-sodding the South Lawn and then creating a \u201ccustom turfgrass blend\u201d with which to reseed it.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether the commitment includes restoring the grass on the White House Ellipse, which was similarly damaged after the event. Aerial photos taken over the weekend by Reuters showed a large, circular expanse of dirt where the verdant Ellipse had been.<\/p>\n

The National Park Service, which typically handles White House lawn maintenance, directed inquiries Monday to the White House. Representatives for the White House said that ScottsMiracle-Gro had offered a private donation to the National Park Service to go toward lawn care, and that no taxpayer dollars would be used. A spokesperson from ScottsMiracle Gro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

But Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, a nonprofit government watchdog, said the arrangement raises ethics questions, particularly following the recent failed repairs at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool<\/a>, which was done under a no-bid contract awarded to a Trump ally.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Patchy grass is evident in the vicinity of the former fighting venue. (Aaron Schwartz\/Reuters)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cMajor corporations generally don\u2019t do things out of the goodness of their heart. It\u2019s generally \u2014 they do things for the government because they want something from the government,\u201d CREW vice president Jordan Libowitz told The Washington Post.<\/p>\n

Libowitz noted that ScottsMiracle-Gro markets and distributes the herbicide Roundup, whose active ingredient, glyphosate, has been the subject of lawsuits alleging that it causes cancer. In February, Trump signed an executive order<\/a> calling glyphosate \u201ccrucial to the national security and defense\u201d of the country, a move that angered part of his base<\/a>. The Supreme Court is currently considering<\/a> whether to block lawsuits that allege Roundup causes cancer.<\/p>\n

ScottsMiracle-Gro CEO James Hagedorn is a longtime Trump supporter<\/a> who has advised the president on a different kind of grass: He lobbied<\/a> for marijuana to be reclassified from a Schedule I drug \u2014 the most strictly regulated \u2014 to a Schedule III drug, and praised Trump<\/a> when he signed an executive order late last year doing so.<\/p>\n

Libowitz said it is not unusual for American presidents to boost American businesses, though usually they are not singled out in the way Trump has before \u2014 by including Palantir\u2019s stock ticker, for example, in a social media post that touted the defense company<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week, the official White House social media accounts announced<\/a> ScottsMiracle-Gro\u2019s donation in a post that seemed \u201cjust a little off\u201d and like an ad, Libowitz added, particularly since the company was one of the sponsors of the UFC event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just like \u2018I support American businesses.\u2019 It\u2019s \u2018I want you to put money behind the businesses supporting me,\u2019 \u201d Libowitz said of Trump\u2019s posts promoting private companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to be this whole [UFC] event was an opportunity for different corporations to advertise in front of the president,\u201d he added.<\/p>

Read more Messi sets World Cup scoring record as defending champion Argentina advances to knockout stage<\/a><\/p>\n

Organizers of the UFC event had anticipated the grass would be destroyed when planning the event. Last year, UFC CEO Dana White told the Sports Business Journal<\/a> that they were allocating $700,000 to replace the grass \u201cbecause we\u2019re going to f— up the South Lawn.\u201d<\/p>\n

White and the UFC did not immediately return requests for comment Monday about whether the UFC would still be paying for any portion of the repairs to the South Lawn or to the Ellipse.<\/p>\n

As America approaches its 250th birthday, the grass-less Ellipse and South Lawn \u2014 paired with the algae-filled Reflecting Pool and demolished East Wing of the White House \u2014 have drawn partisan criticism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the 250th year anniversary of USA the @WhiteHouse<\/a> and surroundings looks so terrible\u2026is so sad to see\u2026” Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s, a chef and vocal Trump critic, wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to ScottsMiracle-Gro, Trump personally selected a blend of tall fescues and Kentucky bluegrasses to restore the South Lawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president knows a lot about grass. I think his history and past with golf courses,\u201c Nate Baxter, ScottsMiracle-Gro chief operating officer, told Fox Business<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Grass experts said it would be more cost effective to reseed the lawn, rather than to lay down new sod and then reseed, but it would have taken several weeks for grass seed to germinate and establish itself. The White House did not address questions about why they opted to resod and whether the new sod would be laid in time for July 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo replace it with sod, you\u2019re talking a pretty significant financial expenditure or impact,\u201d said Steve Mercogliana, director of operations at the Philadelphia-based Four Seasons Total Landscaping.<\/p>\n

Mercogliana, whose business went viral after it inexplicably hosted a 2020 news conference for Rudy Giuliani and other members of Trump\u2019s legal team, said organizers could have also spared large swaths of grass by building a small platform to keep people off the lawn. He said he watched a little bit of the UFC fight \u201chere and there,\u201d but couldn\u2019t help doing so through a landscapers\u2019 lens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was curious. I looked at it and I thought, \u2018Oh man, I wonder what that ground\u2019s going to look like when all these people leave the premise? What\u2019s the impact of that?\u2019 And here we are,\u201d he said.<\/p>

Read more Lionel Messi breaks World Cup scoring record with his 17th goal for Argentina<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ohio-based ScottsMiracle-Gro said it is donating \u201ca combination of monetary and product support.” A government watchdog said the arrangement raises ethics questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump supporter\u2019s company pledges $1 million to fix White House lawn after UFC event - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=4775\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump supporter\u2019s company pledges $1 million to fix White House lawn after UFC event - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ohio-based ScottsMiracle-Gro said it is donating \u201ca combination of monetary and product support." 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