Trump remakes Rose Garden with loans from secret Supreme Court megadonor Harlan Crow

Instead of adding new roses, President Donald Trump’s White House Rose Garden is growing statues.

Trump put statues of some of America’s founders in the garden just off the Oval Office after he replaced its plush lawn with a white stone patio , turning the historic outdoor space into a look-alike of the one at his Mar-a-Lago home and private club in Palm Beach, Florida.

At least one statue was a gift.

Others are on loan from people who wish to remain anonymous.

The latest addition, a bronze depiction of a seated Thomas Jefferson signing the Declaration of Independence, was a gift from George Lundeen, a sculptor from Loveland, Colorado.

It joins statues already displayed there of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Ben Franklin.

A fifth sculpture named “Freedom’s Charge” is also on the patio.

The statues are part of Trump’s sweeping series of White House renovations , from his gilded makeover of the Oval Office to the ballroom and helipad that the Republican president is having built on the south grounds.

These projects fit into Trump’s broader plan to leave his mark on downtown Washington through other construction projects , including a statue garden on federal land near the National Mall.

Thomas Jefferson returns to the White House Lundeen said he made the sculpture of Jefferson, the third U.S. president, decades ago and kept it at his ranch until he decided to spruce it up and send it to Trump for display at the White House in time for July Fourth celebrations of America’s 250th birthday .

Steven Barber, his friend and collaborator, had reached out to contacts at the White House on Lundeen’s behalf.

“I thought it would just be a real nice thing on the 250th for people to look at Thomas Jefferson as he was writing the Declaration of Independence,” Lundeen said in a telephone interview.

But the statue did not get to the White House in time.

Barber said it was stuck on a truck partly because of heavy security around the celebratory events.