Petition urges US First Lady Jill Biden to restore White House garden to 'former glory'

White House Rose Garden in April 1963 (L), photo by Bettmann via Getty Images; the new White House Rose Garden, designed by First Lady Melania Trump (R) in August 2020 - see note re useGetty Images/Alamy

The Rose Garden pictured in 1963 on the left and after the 2020 changes on the right

More than 50,000 people have signed an online petition calling for US First Lady Jill Biden to restore the Rose Garden at the White House to its "former glory".

Ex-First Lady Melania Trump had some trees and some of the more colourful flowers removed last year.

According to the petition, the changes amounted to "a boring tribute to herself".

Presidents often use the garden for addresses and press conferences.

Getty Images

The Rose Garden with President George W Bush speaking in 2006

Although the petition says Mrs Trump had "the cherry trees, a gift from Japan" removed, US media have pointed out that they were in fact crab apple trees and were replanted elsewhere in the grounds.

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The petition organisers go on to urge Ms Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff - who is married to Vice-President Kamala Harris - to "take this on" and restore the garden to the previous design of former First Lady Jackie Kennedy.

Mrs Kennedy oversaw a major renovation of the garden in the 1960s.

"Jackie's legacy was ripped away from Americans who remembered all that the Kennedys meant to us."

Mrs Trump was criticised at the time of the changes for going ahead with the renovation when the country was in the thick of the Covid crisis and some 150,000 had already died.

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