Melania Trump accuses historian of sharing misleading information over Rose Garden row

Former first lady Melania Trump has accused a historian of sharing “misleading” information after he criticised the renovations she made to the White House Rose Garden last year.

Writing on Twitter, Trump said Michael Beschloss had “proven his ignorance” by showing an early photo of the garden and claimed “he should never be trusted as a professional historian.”

Beschloss, presidential historian for NBC News and a frequent critic of former president Donald Trump, had angered the former first lady because he shared a photo of the garden with a withering caption noting that the “evisceration” of the White House Rose Garden was finished a year ago this month.

“And here was the grim result — decades of American history made to disappear,” Beschloss wrote.

The Trump White House revealed the newly renovated Rose Garden last August. Melania Trump’s office said she wanted to make the area more closely resemble the original 1962 design by Rachel Lambert Mellon during the Kennedy administration.

But the changes sparked criticism among many who attacked the historic garden’s new look. A petition surfaced in April, which has received more than 80,000 signatures, calling for first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff to reverse the changes to the Rose Garden.

And inevitably, the project was roundly roasted on Twitter and still is a year on:

Poor Melania. Looks like she won’t be invited to the Chelsea Flower Show anytime soon.