WASHINGTON — President 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 last 18 months — or at least once every 12 days. That doesn’t include his social media posts on the topic.Trump’s gravitation toward grass may grow out of his decades as a New York real estate developer, time spent on the golf course and extensive, second-term efforts to revamp the White House and greater Washington in his own image. The White House didn’t answer questions for this story. But while announcing the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors last August, Trump said: “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.”A week later, while visiting park police officers in Washington, the president said, “I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world.” 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.In 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 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.” Erecting a UFC octagon to mark his 80th birthday in June reduced large swaths of the South Lawn to 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 $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. 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.”Last August, Trump pledged that, after his administration’s 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. Weissert writes for the Associated Press.
