{"id":31373,"date":"2026-08-07T18:48:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=31373"},"modified":"2026-08-07T18:48:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:48:38","slug":"im-very-good-at-grass-why-trump-goes-into-the-weeds-on-one-of-his-favorite-topics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=31373","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I\u2019m very good at grass.&#8217; Why Trump goes into the weeds on one of his favorite topics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">WASHINGTON &#8212; <\/span>President <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/donald-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a> will tell you: The grass is always greener on his side of the fence. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">And tell you. And tell you. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Trump has spoken repeatedly of his prowess with green lawns since returning to the White House \u2014 at some events even spending more time talking about it than <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/iran\">the war in Iran<\/a>, <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/economy-consumer-confidence-inflation-iran-1b45863254bcaf214d041d0ebafe9536\">the economy<\/a> or <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/projects\/elections-2026\/\">November&#8217;s midterm elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">It was on the president&#8217;s mind just five weeks after his second inauguration, when he pointed out the Oval Office window during an interview with The Spectator. \u201cYou see the grass outside, right?\u201d he asked before detailing his plans to pave over much of it. \u201cSome people would like to leave it. But the problem is, you can\u2019t.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Trump has kept on the topic constantly ever since, saying as recently as Monday at a White House event with military spouses: \u201cGrass is like humans. It has a life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">All told, he&#8217;s mentioned grass in at least 45 public events or interviews over the past 18 months \u2014 or at least once every 12 days. That doesn&#8217;t include the numerous social media posts that he has also made on the topic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Trump&#8217;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 <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/golf-course-renovation-andrews-trump-nicklaus-53ad20f9d1fe4661b109c102f428d112\">time he spends on the golf course<\/a> and his extensive, second-term efforts to <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-helipad-white-house-sikorsky-8fc7afedf64788e81e4012c91616ac76\">revamp the White House<\/a> and <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/america-250-trump-renovations-washington-dc-tour-7a01986959f79d0153c3225f43a375f3\">greater Washington<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The White House didn&#8217;t answer questions for this story. But the Republican president has made clear where his interest in \u2014 and knowledge of \u2014 grass comes from.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses,&#8221; he said while announcing the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors last August. &#8220;And, if you don\u2019t have good grass, you\u2019re not in business very long.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A week later, while visiting park police officers in Washington, the president declared, \u201cI know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">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\u2019s South Lawn. He proudly considers himself a \u201cgrass nerd\u201d and came away convinced Trump is an honorary one. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cAn amazing dialogue, talking grass for half an hour,\u201d Koch said of the Oval Office discussion. \u201cGoing back and forth about grass.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Trump has managed to bring up grass at events as varied as the signing of <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-tiktok-china-framework-deal-fff6094ef7012840ec726fcf2cb68aef\">an executive order on TikTok<\/a> and the 2025 White House <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/diwali-festival-of-lights-hindu-india-8d258912a69a78e222ff0205302f5103\">celebration<\/a> of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. He mentioned it while <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/donald-trump-thanksgiving-turkey-pardon-e678ffc1f819dde1b8a8c4ebfe53ebdd\">pardoning turkeys<\/a> last Thanksgiving, while addressing the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/wef-davos-trump-ukraine-carney-musk-9f9a80ba7b80139f6bcfdf7b2a620c1a\">World Economic Forum<\/a> in Switzerland, and while signing a directive on quantum technology.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Last September, while hosting Republican lawmakers for dinner, he pledged of green spaces around Washington, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna re-grass them with the best guys in the country.\u201d That same month, during an event <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-department-of-war-8cb6fe42fee4128f5a8fcab3f49e6e41\">announcing the intended renaming<\/a> of the Department of Defense, Trump assured attendees, \u201cI\u2019m very good at grass.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Trump most frequently mentions grass while promoting his Washington beautification efforts. In May, he spent <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-cabinet-dc-mayor-renovations-meeting-c84c5a49c0dfef4393a4c57180dd2b00\">10 minutes<\/a> of a Cabinet meeting detailing his efforts to fix fountains and give D.C.&#8217;s parks and monuments a face-lift \u2014 sometimes sounding more like a small-town mayor than the leader of the free world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Ironically, the president brings up the topic while defending his decisions to remove grass for new construction \u2014 like when he covered the lawn near the White House&#8217;s Rose Garden with a stone patio. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cProblem with the grass, you couldn\u2019t do anything with it,\u201d he said during a 2025 Oval Office tour for hosts of the \u201cAll-In\u201d podcast. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThe women would be lifting up their shoes, saying, \u2018You\u2019ve destroyed my shoes,&#8217;\u201d he said during a luncheon last fall. When hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers in July, he relayed that women in heels \u201cwould go down like quicksand.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Erecting a <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ufc-claw-octagon-ufo-white-house-trump-2c008c72bcfd2334a17ba5ba009595ec\">UFC octagon<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cWhen you land on the grass, it\u2019s not that the grass gets discolored \u2014 it gets ripped out,\u201d he said in June. Trump even described tufts of turf going \u201call over\u201d and said, \u201cHalf of the grass was sitting in front of the Oval Office front door.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">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. The company&#8217;s former CEO, James Hagedorn, is a Trump supporter. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Trump, Koch said, asked good, detailed questions as he was shown carpet sample-like swaths of each grass variety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cYou can tell he spends a lot of time on golf courses,&#8221; Koch said. \u201cHe obviously owns courses, and he knows grass from being around it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Also key to the president&#8217;s grass fixation is his <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/golf-course-renovation-andrews-trump-nicklaus-53ad20f9d1fe4661b109c102f428d112\">love of golf<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Bert McCarty, a Clemson University professor of turfgrass science and management, said golfers like how top courses are so different \u2014 from incorporating the ocean in places near beaches to relying on inclines in the mountains.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Trump, McCarty said, is \u201clike most golfers. He likes the challenge of the course and the differences of the course to add variety.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Last August, Trump pledged that, after his administration&#8217;s various improvements, parks in Washington will \u201clook like Augusta&#8221; \u2014 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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">McCarty said most people \u201clook at the beautiful flowers and the striped-up fairways, and they just think it\u2019s heaven.&#8221; But \u201cAugusta basically spares no expense to achieve the look they&#8217;re after,&#8221; he added, and municipalities \u201ccan&#8217;t compete with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Cost aside, though, Trump may be thinking even bigger than Augusta, pointing to his own golf course in Northern Virginia. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">\u201cIt\u2019ll look like, more importantly, Trump National Golf Club,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s even better.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON &#8212; 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 \u2014 at some events even spending more time talking about it than the war&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/18a33f39-8e6d-4218-8f82-bc6b41f21356\/wirestory_5154f2697c460fd8cdda277cc7874780_16x9.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}