WASHINGTON — The White House this week added a large George Washington statue to the Rose Garden at the specific request of President Donald Trump, according to a federal official and one White House official.
The bronze statue, which belongs to the National Park Service, was moved from the Washington Monument to its new location during the government shutdown.
The 1992 statue is a reproduction made from a cast of the original white marble statue that resides in the Virginia State Capitol, according to the White House official. The original marble statue was made by French artist Jean-Antoine Houdon and is believed to be the only one of Washington done from a life mask.
The bronze version had been visible to the public until recently, with about 250,000 people visiting the Washington Monument each year. It was installed during a renovation in the late 1990s.
The statue was prepped for a life outdoors and stands on the far side of the reimagined Rose Garden patio.
National Park Service conservators will monitor and treat the statue, the federal official said. Of concern, exposure can change the color, which is now a rich bronze. Oxidation can cause it to develop a green patina. Experts say the Statue of Liberty was once the same color, but time and exposure produced its greenish exterior.
Notably, the nation’s first president never lived in the White House. Washington’s successor, John Adams, was the first resident as president.
The statue’s arrival follows other alterations Trump has made to the grounds, including installing a pair of flagpoles and paving over a patch of grass that he has said, when wet, poses a problem to women in heels.
“Their heels are going right through the grass, like 4 inches deep,” Trump said during an interview with The Spectator published in February.
A construction project to replace the East Wing with a ballroom that Trump has estimated will cost roughly $200 million was announced in July.
Trump last month told NBC News in an interview that the ballroom would be “a little bigger” than initially planned and accommodate 900 people instead of the 650 people the White House projected in a July statement on the construction project.
