Jill Biden, 69, is appreciating the renovated Rose Garden that Melania Trump, 51, left behind after leaving the White House earlier this year. The First Lady shared a new pic of the flower-filled area to her Twitter page on May 7 and added an exciting caption to it. “Spring is here at the @WhiteHouse!” the caption read.
Spring is here at the @WhiteHouse! pic.twitter.com/n87JOlJ7NN
— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) May 7, 2021
Although she didn’t mention Melania directly, the tweet could be seen as a sign of support for the wife of former President Donald Trump, 74. After she renovated the garden in Aug. 2020, it received a lot of controversy from critics. Private donations were used to return the garden back to its roots and honor the original design by Bunny Mellon, which President John Kennedy requested in 1962, but people spoke out against the results once they noticed Melania got rid of the crabapple trees that were originally put there during Kennedy’s time at the White House.
Some online users also complained that Melania’s chosen flowers were too pale compared to the brightly colored ones that were there during the Obama administration and an online petition on change.org even garnered more than 75,000 signatures to try and get the Biden administration to undo her changes. Former first lady Jackie Kennedy was the one to originally restore the garden in the early 1960s after years of neglect and the description of the petition states that the late political figure’s “legacy was ripped away” when Melania renovated the garden. At the time of the changes, the White House responded and explained that the flowers just needed time to grow before they would eventually flourish.
After Jill shared her latest photo of the Melania-approved Rose Garden, some followers brought up the ongoing controversy and asked her to change it back to the way it was prior to Melania’s changes. “Sadly scarred by concrete and the loss of beautiful trees. Please restore our Rose Garden,” one follower wrote while another urged her to “take out the wretched cement and return the rose garden to its former glory!” A third pleaded, “Please replace the beautiful rose garden & crabapple trees that were horrendously & callously destroyed. Return it to the beauty it once was.”
Please restore Jackie Kennedy’s rose garden. It would make many of us very happy. It’s such a same someone felt the need to destroy it.
— Native (@802Vermont59) May 7, 2021
Despite the command for changes, there’s no confirmation that the Rose Garden will undergo any renovations anytime soon. The South Lawn of the White House, however, is currently undergoing a massive renovation which is reportedly part of a security and infrastructure upgrade.