When the White House Rose Garden was renovated in the summer of 2020 under first lady Melania Trump, criticism began swiftly. To many Americans, however, any changes to the elegant and restrained garden built under President John F. Kennedy seemed like a sacrilege. When Kennedy took office in 1961, the White House Rose Garden was in tatters. During visits to Versailles and Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace that summer, the president saw how European leaders deployed gardens to display beauty and sophistication. Kennedy envisioned turning the existing Rose Garden, designed by first lady Ellen Wilson in 1913, into a green platform for broadcasting public events.

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