Trump blasts crew after Rose Garden limestone damage

President Donald Trump on Saturday publicly chastised a subcontracting crew he said left a large gash in newly installed limestone at the White House Rose Garden, sharing security footage on his social media platform and vowing to replace the stone, pursue charges and bar the contractor from future work at the residence. Trump said he discovered the damage three days earlier while inspecting the completed renovation to the garden that sits alongside the Oval Office.

In a Truth Social post accompanying a surveillance clip, Trump called the scrape in the limestone "deep and nasty" and said it extended "more than 25 yards," a measurement he provided. The roughly 40 second clip shows two workers pushing a heavy, uneven metal cart along a paved path; the cart appears to catch on a corner and rub against a stone slab as other men watch. Trump wrote that the cart was broken and tilting, and said the damage was the result of either "vandalism or, was it stupidity?" He added, "They brought back the stupid people, with their boss watching in sunglasses."

Trump also took credit for the garden redesign and praised the White House's security cameras for catching the incident. "Surfaces are...