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How does the White House Rose Garden grow? With Washington and Hamilton and Franklin and Jefferson all in a row.
President Donald Trump’s remaking of the Rose Garden continues apace with sculptures lining one side of the paved-over garden, facing the Oval Office. Statues of founding fathers have popped up in recent months.
Last week, a new one was added: Thomas Jefferson.
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Ben Franklin, the oldest founding father and polymath, stands across from George Washington, the first president of the United States. Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. secretary of the Treasury, stands next to a sculpture honoring Revolutionary War heroes called Freedom's Charge.
Unlike the other statues, which are all on loan to the People’s House, the statue of Jefferson, the nation’s third president, was a gift created by Colorado-based sculptor George Lundeen, a White House official told USA TODAY.Also unlike other statues, Jefferson is portrayed sitting on a bench.
With a quill in his hand, he's seen writing the Declaration of Independence.
Lundeen also created a life-size bronze statue of Trump titled the Defiance Monument, capturing the moment Trump pumped his fist in the air immediately following the 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. A life-sized bronze casting of the scene can be found at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
As the Jefferson sculpture is a gift, at the end of Trump's term, the National Archives could transfer the statue to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library in Miami, a White House official told USA TODAY. Other options include the Trump library loaning or donating it back to the White House.
In the case of a donation, the sculpture would become the property of the White House and be maintained by the White House Usher's office and the National Park Service.
Other editions of the life-size bronze statue, including one featured at Sorrel Sky Gallery in New York, have an asking price of $90,000. There is one located at the University of Missouri next to the David R. Francis Quadrangle, as well as one located at Booth Western Art Museum in Georgia, according to auction site invaluable.com
The Jefferson statue currently faces the Truman Balcony with its back toward the Oval Office. This placement is temporary since the location picked by the president has to be shored up before installing the statue, the White House official said.
The statue will face the Rose Garden and Oval Office when the installation is complete.
Trump, who has had a long career in real estate, has been putting his design stamp on all manner of things at the White House, from decking out the Oval Office with portraits of presidents, military flags and golden flourishes to paving over the Rose Garden lawn. Workers are in the middle of building a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, for which Trump decided to demolish the East Wing, drawing scorn from critics.
He's also remaking DC with projects such as the Triumphal Arch and the Reflecting Pool renovation.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Latest White House sculpture may go to Trump library
