The sign for Trump National Golf Club is pictured as the motorcade for President Donald Trump arrives. (Photo:AP)Grass has become one of the more unexpected recurring themes of Donald Trump’s second presidency. It has surfaced not only when the US president talks about golf or the White House grounds, but during discussions and events involving TikTok, quantum technology, Diwali, Thanksgiving turkeys and even the World Economic Forum.Trump has mentioned grass in at least 45 public events or interviews over the past 18 months — or at least once every 12 days. The count does not include his numerous social media posts on the subject and has already surpassed the 26 occasions on which he mentioned grass during his entire first four-year term. At some events, his remarks on lawns have lasted longer than his comments on the war in Iran, the US economy or November’s midterm elections.The Associated Press reported that Trump was still talking about the subject as recently as Monday, during a White House event with military spouses. “Grass is like humans. It has a life,” he said. His fascination with turf appears to intersect with several long-standing parts of his life: decades spent as a New York real-estate developer, a personal love of building things and overseeing construction projects, extensive time on golf courses and his second-term drive to remake parts of the White House and greater Washington in his own image. The White House declined to comment on his repeated references to grass.It started early in Trump’s second termGrass was already on Trump’s agenda barely five weeks after his second inauguration.During an interview with The Spectator, Trump looked through an Oval Office window and drew attention to the lawn outside. “You see the grass outside, right?” Trump asked before detailing his plans to pave over much of it. “Some people would like to leave it. But the problem is, you can’t.”Trump has repeatedly connected his confidence on the subject to his ownership of golf courses. “I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses,” he said while announcing the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors last August. “And, if you don’t have good grass, you’re not in business very long.”A week later, during a visit with US Park Police officers in Washington, he went considerably further. “I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world,” Trump said.An Oval Office meeting devoted to turfTrump’s interest has not stopped at public remarks. Matt Koch, the lawns research fellow for gardening company Scotts Miracle-Gro, recently met the president to discuss new grass for the White House South Lawn. Koch proudly considers himself a “grass nerd” and came away convinced Trump was an honorary one.“An amazing dialogue, talking grass for half an hour,” Koch said of the Oval Office discussion. “Going back and forth about grass.”Trump was shown swaths of different grass varieties resembling carpet samples and, according to Koch, asked good, detailed questions about them. “You can tell he spends a lot of time on golf courses,” Koch said. “He obviously owns courses, and he knows grass from being around it.”A Trump-selected mix for the South LawnTrump chose a custom turfgrass mixture containing four kinds of tall fescues and four Kentucky bluegrasses. The selection was made during his June meeting with Koch.Scotts Miracle-Gro donated $1 million in monetary and product support to the National Park Service to restore the South Lawn after a UFC event held there. The company’s chief executive, James Hagedorn, is a Trump supporter. Koch returned to the White House last week as crews began resodding some areas of the White House lawn outside the area where a new helipad is being built.The longer-term plan is to plant seeds from Trump’s chosen blend next spring. By then, growing conditions should be optimal and construction of the helipad is expected to be complete, making restoration of the lawn easier.UFC and Marine One take their toll on the lawnThe South Lawn has had a particularly disruptive summer. A UFC octagon erected there to mark Trump’s 80th birthday in June left large areas of the lawn as dusty dirt. In the weeks that followed, work began on a sprawling helicopter landing pad, taking out still more grass.Trump has said the new helipad is necessary because the newer, more powerful fleet of helicopters now being used as Marine One was damaging the existing sod. “When you land on the grass, it’s not that the grass gets discolored — it gets ripped out,” he said in June. Trump also described tufts of turf going “all over” and said, “Half of the grass was sitting in front of the Oval Office front door.”Why the Rose Garden lost its grassThere is another twist to Trump’s enthusiasm for lawns: some of his most frequent discussions about grass come while explaining why he has removed it.The grassy area beside the White House Rose Garden was replaced with a stone patio. During an Oval Office tour for the hosts of the “All-In” podcast in 2025, Trump said: “Problem with the grass, you couldn’t do anything with it.”He has repeatedly offered another reason for the change — complaints from women attending White House functions. Trump has said women, including journalists, Cabinet members and administration officials, complained that their high heels became stuck in the muddy lawn. “The women would be lifting up their shoes, saying, ‘You’ve destroyed my shoes,’” he said during a luncheon last fall.When the Los Angeles Dodgers visited the White House in July, Trump returned to the story, saying women in heels “would go down like quicksand.”TikTok, Diwali and Thanksgiving — grass keeps appearingThe subject has travelled far beyond events devoted to gardening or White House construction.Trump brought up grass while signing an executive order involving TikTok. It surfaced again during the White House’s 2025 Diwali celebration, during the traditional Thanksgiving turkey pardon, while he addressed the World Economic Forum in Switzerland and while signing a directive on quantum technology.At a dinner with Republican lawmakers last September, Trump pledged of green spaces around Washington: “We’re gonna re-grass them with the best guys in the country.”Later that same month, grass came up during an event connected to the intended renaming of the Department of Defense. “I’m very good at grass,” Trump told those present.The topic appears most frequently alongside his plans for Washington’s physical appearance. During a Cabinet meeting in May, Trump spent about 10 minutes discussing efforts to fix fountains and give the capital’s parks and monuments a facelift.Golf offers the clearest explanationTrump’s golfing life provides perhaps the most straightforward explanation for his attention to lawns.Bert McCarty, a professor of turfgrass science and management at Clemson University, said golfers tend to appreciate how much premier courses can differ from one another. Some incorporate the ocean in places near beaches, while mountain courses rely on inclines to create a different experience. Trump, McCarty said, is “like most golfers. He likes the challenge of the course and the differences of the course to add variety.”Augusta — and then Trump NationalTrump has also carried his golf-course standards into his plans for Washington’s parks.Last August, he said improvements undertaken by his administration would eventually leave Washington parks looking like Augusta National, home of the Masters. Trump said the parks would “look like Augusta”.At Augusta, appearance is managed down to small details. Bags from the pro shop and food wrappers are green so that any litter visible during television coverage blends more easily with the grass.McCarty said most people “look at the beautiful flowers and the striped-up fairways, and they just think it’s heaven.” But “Augusta basically spares no expense to achieve the look they’re after,” he added, and municipalities “can’t compete with that.”Trump, however, has suggested Augusta may not be his ultimate benchmark. He has pointed instead to his Trump National Golf Club in Northern Virginia. “It’ll look like, more importantly, Trump National Golf Club,” he said. “That’s even better.”