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

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US President George W Bush speaks during a press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in September 2006 in Washington, DC
The Rose Garden is frequently used by US presidents to make addresses and speeches - here with President George W Bush speaking in 2006

More than 50,000 people have signed an online petition calling for US First Lady Jill Biden to reinstate 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.

The Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, April 2021
The garden as it is now
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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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