Donald Trump’s election is a stunning blow to President Obama’s legacy, and First Lady Michelle Obama is already taking steps to preserve her own.
Shortly after her husband was sworn in a president in 2009, Michelle began digging up a portion of the South Lawn at the White House to create a vegetable garden, a symbol of her broader initiative to promote healthy eating. It currently occupies almost 3,000 square feet on the presidential property.
Michelle wants to make sure the garden does not become a casualty of the Trump Administration. In an effort to ensure its survival, she has purchased an inscribed stone plaque to place at its entrance. It reads: “WHITE HOUSE KITCHEN GARDEN established in 2009 by First Lady Michelle Obama with the hope of growing a healthier nation for our children.”
The First Lady has taken steps to ensure the White House vegetable garden hangs around https://t.co/dpP9apUWAN
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) November 13, 2016
Michelle Obama's Vegetable Garden—A Look Back and Why It Isn't Going Away Anytime Soon – https://t.co/rSaJgjE2DU https://t.co/GiAc5d05Gb
— Garden share (@Gardenshare) November 12, 2016
Michelle is also reportedly pressuring her husband to issue an executive order to permanently preserve the garden after they leave the White House, and has secured $2.5 million in private donations to maintain and enhance the vegetable sanctuary.
“This little garden will live on as a symbol of the hopes and dreams we all hold of growing a healthier nation for our children,” she said last month at a ceremony to dedicate a new arbor entryway. “I am hopeful that future first families will cherish this garden like we have, and that it will become one of our enduring White House traditions.”
President Obama himself, before the election, expressed concern that Donald Trump would “dig up Michelle’s garden”.
Obama frets about a Trump presidency on Tom Joyner Morning Show:
“I guarantee you he’ll dig up Michelle’s garden…you think I’m joking?” pic.twitter.com/xm3TkteQ1h— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) November 2, 2016
And sure enough, the garden’s enemies are circling. Trump adherent Anne Coulter is already calling for its destruction.
I respectfully suggest a new name for Michelle's White House vegetable garden: "Putting green"
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) November 10, 2016
Donald Trump, who will become the first obese American to reside in the White House since William Howard Taft, is not known to be a fan of vegetables. He is said to prefer fast food out of an obsessive concern for sanitation.
“I’m a very clean person,” Trump said in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “I like cleanliness, and I think you’re better off going [to a fast food joint] than maybe someplace that you have no idea where the food’s coming from. It’s a certain standard.”
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