WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump will tell you: The grass is always greener on his side of the fence. And tell you. And tell you. Trump has spoken repeatedly of his prowess with green lawns since returning to the White House — at some events even spending more time talking about it than the war in Iran, the economy or November’s midterm elections. It was on the president’s mind just five weeks after his second inauguration, when he pointed out the Oval Office window during an interview with The Spectator. “You see the grass outside, right?” he asked before detailing his plans to pave over much of it. “Some people would like to leave it. But the problem is, you can’t.” Trump has kept on the topic constantly ever since, saying as recently as Monday at a White House event with military spouses: “Grass is like humans. It has a life.” All told, he’s mentioned grass in at least 45 public events or interviews over the past 18 months — or at least once every 12 days. That doesn’t include the numerous social media posts that he has also made on the topic. Trump’s gravitation toward grass speaks to his decades as a New York real estate developer and personal love of building things and overseeing construction projects. But it is also an indication of how much time he spends on the golf course and his extensive, second-term efforts to revamp the White House and greater Washington in his own image. The president has already far outpaced the 26 times he mentioned grass during the entirety of his first four-year term. The White House didn’t answer questions for this story. But the Republican president has made clear where his interest in — and knowledge of — grass comes from. “I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses,” he said while announcing the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors last August. ”And, if you don’t have good grass, you’re not in business very long.” A week later, while visiting park police officers in Washington, the president declared, “I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world.” Trump frequently touts his Washington overhaul and Rose Garden patio Matt Koch, the lawns research fellow for gardening giant Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, met recently with the president to discuss planting new grass on the White House’s South Lawn. He proudly considers himself a “grass nerd” and came away convinced Trump is an honorary one. “An amazing dialogue, talking grass for half an hour,” Koch said of the Oval Office discussion. “Going back and forth about grass.” Trump has managed to bring up grass at events as varied as the signing of an executive order on TikTok and the 2025 White House celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. He mentioned it while pardoning turkeys last Thanksgiving, while addressing the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, and while signing a directive on quantum technology. Last September, while hosting Republican lawmakers for dinner, he pledged of green spaces around Washington, “We’re gonna re-grass them with the best guys in the country.” That same month, during an event announcing the intended renaming of the Department of Defense, Trump assured attendees, “I’m very good at grass.” Trump most frequently mentions grass while promoting his Washington beautification efforts. In May, he spent 10 minutes of a Cabinet meeting detailing his efforts to fix fountains and give D.C.’s parks and monuments a face-lift — sometimes sounding more like a small-town mayor than the leader of the free world. Ironically, the president brings up the topic while defending his decisions to remove grass for new construction — like when he covered the lawn near the White House’s Rose Garden with a stone patio. “Problem with the grass, you couldn’t do anything with it,” he said during a 2025 Oval Office tour for hosts of the “All-In” podcast. The president also frequently recounts that hordes of women, including journalists, Cabinet members and administration officials, used to complain to him about their high heels getting stuck in the mud in the old, grassy Rose Garden. “The women would be lifting up their shoes, saying, ‘You’ve destroyed my shoes,’” he said during a luncheon last fall. When hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers in July, he relayed that women in heels “would go down like quicksand.” Trump’s helipad is wiping out even more grass Erecting a UFC octagon to mark his 80th birthday in June reduced large swaths of the South Lawn to dusty dirt. In the weeks since, crews have been building a sprawling helicopter landing pad, meaning even more grass has been removed from the lawn. Trump said the helipad was needed because the new, more powerful fleet of helicopters now being used as Marine One tore up the previous sod. “When you land on the grass, it’s not that the grass gets discolored — it gets ripped out,” he said in June. Trump even described tufts of turf going “all over” and said, “Half of the grass was sitting in front of the Oval Office front door.” Scotts Miracle-Gro donated US$1 million in monetary and product support to the National Park Service to restore the South Lawn after the UFC fight, and Trump used the meeting with Koch in June to select a custom turfgrass blend of four kinds of tall fescues and four Kentucky bluegrasses. The company’s former CEO, James Hagedorn, is a Trump supporter. Trump, Koch said, asked good, detailed questions as he was shown carpet sample-like swaths of each grass variety. “You can tell he spends a lot of time on golf courses,” Koch said. “He obviously owns courses, and he knows grass from being around it.” Koch returned to the White House last week as crews began resodding some areas of the White House lawn outside the helipad construction area. There are plans next spring to plant seeds from the grass blend Trump selected. By then, growth will be optimal, and the helipad work should be complete, making the lawn restoration easier. Many golfers are obsessed with grass Also key to the president’s grass fixation is his love of golf. Bert McCarty, a Clemson University professor of turfgrass science and management, said golfers like how top courses are so different — from incorporating the ocean in places near beaches to relying on inclines in the mountains. Trump, McCarty said, is “like most golfers. He likes the challenge of the course and the differences of the course to add variety.” Last August, Trump pledged that, after his administration’s various improvements, parks in Washington will “look like Augusta” — a reference to the home of the iconic Masters tournament, where aesthetics are so important that bags from the pro shop and food wrappers are green so that any possible litter blends in with the grass during TV broadcasts. McCarty said most people “look at the beautiful flowers and the striped-up fairways, and they just think it’s heaven.” But “Augusta basically spares no expense to achieve the look they’re after,” he added, and municipalities “can’t compete with that.” Cost aside, though, Trump may be thinking even bigger than Augusta, pointing to his own golf course in Northern Virginia. “It’ll look like, more importantly, Trump National Golf Club,” he said. “That’s even better.” Will Weissert, The Associated Press
