Former New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald slammed First Lady Melania Trump for renovating White House Rose Garden and said on Saturday that he was’ angry ‘, she’s a foreigner’, causing pushback from other journalists arises.
“It’s a destruction of our history, something no other First Lady should have done,” Eichenwald, a New York Times bestselling author, tweeted on Saturday, “This is the first time I’ve been afraid of @FLOTUS. “is a foreigner. She has no right to break our history.”
Eichenwald, who later tweeted an apology, responded to the comments from a first lady tweet on Saturday, which included photos of the renovations.
“Excited to honor history and celebrate the future in our beautiful @WhiteHouse Rose Garden this evening,” Trump tweeted. “Thank you so much to everyone who helped with renovating this iconic and truly beautiful space.”
Melania Trump, who grew up in Slovenia and became a U.S. citizen in 2006, posted the tweet on the same day that the work on the garden, which took three weeks to complete, was shown to reporters.
A view of the restored rose garden will be on display at the White House in Washington on Saturday, August 22, 2020.
(AP Photo / Susan Walsh)
Melania Trump has overseen a redesign of the Rose Garden to restore it to its original 1962 blueprint, dated from the Kennedy administration.
“The whole action of planting a garden involves hard work and hope in the possibility of a bright future,” she said in a statement last month. “Preserving the history and beauty of the White House and its grounds is a testament to our nation’s commitment to caring for this landscape and our dedication to American ideals, and protecting them for our children and their children for generations to come. it’s coming. “
Eichenwald, who spent two decades as a senior writer at The New York Times, also tweeted on Saturday, ‘I still find it unbelievable that @FLOTUS who has only been a citizen since the middle of GW’s second term Bush was embarrassed about the Rose Garden, about a life history that can go back a lifetime. ”
MELANIA TRUMP RENOVATES WHITE HOUSE ROSE GARDEN WITH NOD TO ORIGINAL KENNEDY ADMINISTRATION DESIGN
“These trashy, evil, stupid people need to get out of our house,” he continued. “What a GALL she has.”
Mehdi Hasan, a journalist who is a senior columnist at online news publication The Intercept and host on the Al Jazeera network, responded to that tweet, “This is a terrible anti-immigrant take, Kurt, and you need it. delete and apologize. ”
CNN anchor Jake Tapper agreed with Hasan to write in a tweet, “This is xenophobic and wrong. It’s bigotry. “
Eichenwald added in another tweet in response to some of the criticism that, “Someone who has been a citizen for less than 1/3 of their life should respect the history of America, should honor our history , do not decide that their personal taste should ripen it. ”
But eventually the angry writer deleted his tweets and replaced them with a two-tweet mea culpa.
“People may have misunderstood my point that Melania is a foreigner and is renovating plants that have been in place through nearly 100 years of First Ladies,” he tweeted. “It was a complex point & I was wrong to say it. My point was that people who come to America should keep their history, not ignore it. But I deleted the tweets. I did not have the bad intention that “They seem to have passed on to so many. I should be more careful in what these kinds of words seem to imply. We all fall into our words at times, this was one of my times. I apologize.”
A spokeswoman for Melania Trump did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment on Eichenwald’s tweets.
A view of the restored Rose Garden can be seen in the White House in Washington, Saturday, August 22, 2020. First Lady Melania Trump will deliver her speech to Republican National Conference on Tuesday night, famous for her proximity to the Oval Office.
(AP Photo / Susan Walsh)
The Rose Garden is an “iconic” location where presidents host events and even press releases, the first lady’s team said. The renovations included “Enhancing Disabled Americans with Disabilities, Utilities, and Support for Audiovisual and Broadcast Needs That Can Continue to Enjoy the Natural Beauty of the Garden,” her team said.
The three weeks of work on the Rose Garden, which was done in the spirit of its original 1962 design, were shown to reporters on Saturday.
(AP Photo / Susan Walsh)
On Tuesday night, Melania Trump is expected to deliver her speech for Republican National Conference from the Rose Garden, which is famous for its proximity to the Oval Office.
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Fox Business’ Evie Fordham and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
