The White House Rose Garden patio got some new additions while the president started his surprise war this weekend.
Upon arriving back at the White House on Sunday night, President Donald Trump was greeted by two new statues in the corners of the paved-over Rose Garden.
The statues appear to depict Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The sculptures were not there when the president left for Texas on Friday, according to PBS White House correspondent Liz Landers.
CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes said on Sunday night that after the president disembarked from Marine One, he refused to answer questions from reporters about the American attacks on Iran or the three servicemembers who died as a result of the military operation, but he did acknowledge the new decor.
“He did not answer those questions,” Holmes told CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins. “He did have some positive praise, and I don’t want to quote exactly, because I don’t have it written down what he said, but he praised the statue in the garden, and then he left.”
Trump announced his surprise aerial bombing campaign against Iran after attending a black-tie gala event at Mar-a-Lago earlier that evening, where he was seen dancing to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was confirmed to have died in Saturday’s strikes. Several Iranian senior officials, including the Minister of Defense and the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), were also reported to have been killed.
U.S. Central Command shared on Sunday morning that three American servicemembers had been killed since the beginning of “Operation Epic Fury,” and that five others had been seriously wounded.
The president said in a video statement on Sunday that “there will likely be more” American military personnel killed before the conflict is over.
“That’s the way it is,” Trump, who received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War, said. “But we’ll do everything possible where that won’t be the case.”
“America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against, basically, civilization.”
The two statues are the newest of Trump’s tacky changes to the White House Rose Garden, which began when the iconic White House fixture became a bulldozed patio last June.
The Daily Beast reached out to the White House for comment.
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