Rose Garden restoration reveals anti-Trump resistance even more deranged than it seems

One may not care for the new aesthetic, but it is what it is: a garden restoration. However, judging by the onslaught of hate directed at the first lady, one would think that she had murdered a baby panda on live television. And even crazier than a weirdly large number of people claiming to have an emotional investment in the Rose Garden is that their furious responses reveal they are unfamiliar with both the history of the garden as well as the basics of horticulture. These people do not know why they are angry. They just know that they are.

“I feel sick to my stomach that ho cut down our Glorious DC Cherry Trees. Sick,” said actress Lisa Ann Walter. “My outrage is that there’s a classless, illegal immigrant, former escort masquerading as a first lady. Our country deserves better.”

First, those were not “cherry trees” in the Rose Garden. They were crabapple trees. Second, they were not “cut down.” (The remainder of Walter’s reaction does not dignify a response.) The first lady’s restoration project emphasizes roses, which require at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight. The restoration team, therefore, removed the crabapple trees to keep the roses out of the shade. The trees will be replanted elsewhere on the White House grounds, according to USA Today.

“A seating area on the east side of the garden … has been removed and will be replaced by a yet-to-be-announced art installation,” USA Today reports. “The most visually striking change to the garden was the addition of a 3-foot-wide limestone walking path bordering the central lawn.”

The report adds, “Less noticeable changes include improved drainage and infrastructure and making the garden more accessible for people with disabilities. Audiovisual, broadcasting and other technical fixes are part of the plan, too.”

The online reaction to the Rose Garden’s reopening, including from the anti-Trump “resistance,” has been utterly deranged. Here is just a small sampling of some of the reflexively angry, ignorant, and remarkably cruel responses that “resisters,” including members of the news and entertainment industries, had this weekend. And remember, we are talking about a garden here:

“The [Trump] family did its best to turn the lovely Rose Garden into a neo-fascist parade ground,” complained NBC News analyst Howard Fineman.

Los Angeles Times opinion writer Virginia Heffernan added elsewhere, “Melania cut down a cherry tree & drained the life out of the landscape — but would call that fake news.”

The trees were not “cut down.”

“Melania Trump destroyed Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden. Think about that. Does it matter much? No. But it sure is emblematic of whose these people are,” said Democratic strategist Tom Watson.

Journalist and “resistance” officer Kurt Eichenwald added elsewhere in a particularly xenophobic tirade, “I still find it unbelievable that [the first lady] who has only been a citizen since the middle GW Bush’s second term had the audacity to wreck the Rose Garden, to pull up history dating back a lifetime.”

“These trashy, evil, stupid people need to get out of our house,” he added. “What gall she has.”

Probably the most annoying response, however, came from presidential historian Michael Beschloss, who tweeted the following:

The “before” picture featured in his tweet was taken on April 10, 2008, back when former President George W. Bush was still in office. It is not exactly a “before” picture in a before-and-after snapshot as there is more than a decade between the photo’s creation date and the first lady’s restoration project. Beschloss almost certainly knows all of this. He knows what he did. Unsurprisingly, his obviously misleading tweet became so much grist for the “resistance” mill.

“Here is the colorful, happy Rose Garden under Obama,” said author Jennifer Wright, tweeting the exact same photo from the Bush years, “and here is Melania’s unveiling of the new garden, entirely devoid of color or joy.”

Just in case there is some confusion: tulips obviously are not in bloom right now in Washington, D.C., as it is late August and about a billion degrees. It is unclear whether Wright is aware that tulips do not stay in bloom year-round or that gardens in the later seasons tend to look the way the Rose Garden looks now.

Some on the Right like to joke that members of the anti-Trump “resistance” suffer from “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” or “TDS.” They may have a point, though I would say it is not really a laughing matter anymore. Certain “resisters” seem to be genuinely unwell. Their seething, reflexing hatred for anything this administration does, including gardening projects, suggests a genuinely unhealthy outlook. I myself used to joke that psychiatrists likely have been making a killing thanks to the Trump administration. But based on what I see every day as increasingly deranged behavior, I am not so sure that the people most emotionally affected by the Trump presidency have been seeking help.