The Trump campaign is following a bill for sod replacement on the White House grounds, damaging parts of the South Lawn and Rose Garden after the events of various Republican national conventions last month, a senior campaign official said Tuesday.
The amount to improve the landscape is unknown, but a White House official said it was not entirely uncommon in the administration for repairs to be made after major incidents on the complex.
The White House also confirmed the payment in a statement.
White House spokesman Judd Deere told NBC News that taxpayers are being replaced by sod for free. In addition, other planned structural work has been carried out on the southern plains.
However, paying for the campaign would draw the ire of ethics officials, who had earlier raised serious objections to holding a political convention at the White House featuring some government officials, including the president and vice president. Under federal law known as the Hatch Act, government employees are prohibited from participating in certain political activities and using government resources for political campaigns.
The Rose Garden was extensively renovated before Melania Trump’s speech. The first lady worked for months with historians, horticulturists and others, to reinstate the original rose in her 1962 composition for her speech.
More than 1,500 people gathered on the grounds of the White House during President Donald Trump’s nomination acceptance speech, which required heavy equipment for mass production, including staging and lighting.
