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In what has become his fourth ramble about grass in the space of a month, US president Donald Trump held a Rose Garden dinner on Friday in which he talked at length about the lifespan of grass.
Yes, really.
The dinner was held with Republican lawmakers in the White House garden, which has seen the grass paved over with a stone patio ahead of demolition for a new $200 million ballroom.
He told attendees: “We’re going to clean up the place. We’re going to put new grass in all the parks.
“You don’t know this, grass has a life. Do you know that, Mike? Grass has a life like we have a life. It’s so long."
“Guess what? It expired about 40 years ago in these parks. There’s no grass on half of them. We’re going to re-grass them with the best guys in the country.”
Earlier, the very same day, grass had already been mentioned by Trump in an Oval Office press conference when he spoke once again about regrassing the parks in Washington DC.
"I’m very good at grass. Grass has a life just like you have a life. It has a life. This grass has been up longer than, it's like four lives. That's why there's a lot of areas where there's no grass," he said.
These instances come after two other rambles about grass in recent weeks, as speaking at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. on 13 August, Trump once again boasted about the work that was going to be done about “fixing up” grass – in this case, in DC and the Kennedy Center.
“We’re going to redo the grass with the finest grasses… I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses, and if you don’t have good grass, you’re not in business very long,” Trump said.
Then, on 21 August, while meeting National Guard troops, he went on to claim he knows “more about grass than any human being” – and we wish we were joking.
He said: “One of the things we’re going to be redoing [in DC] is your parks. I’m very good at grass because I have a lot of golf courses all over the place. I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world.
“We’re going to have all brand-new, beautiful grass. You know, like everything else, grass has a life. Do you know that? Grass has a life. We have a life and grass has a life, and the grass here died about 40 years ago, so we’re going to be rebuilding all of your parks, and it’s going to happen fast.”
And Trump’s latest fascination with grass continues to be ridiculed online:
Some pointed out that the convicted felon was making the remarks after paving over the garden with concrete:
Another asked if someone recently “[explained] to him how grass works”:
Journalist Mehdi Hasan commented that “his obsession with [the] life of grass now rivals his obsession with shower water pressure”:
While one social media user argued “it was way better when he wasn’t talking and we were all speculating” – referring to last weekend when Trump had no public appearances, did not speak to reporters and Twitter/X was rife with theories about the state of the president’s health:
The president’s paving over of the Rose Garden isn’t even the first time that the Trump family have been condemned for their approach to White House renovations, as during the Republican’s first term, first lady Melania Trump decided to change up the garden by uprooting stunning flowers and replacing it all with paving slabs and shrubbery.
It was compared to a “cemetery”.
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