‘I’m very good at grass’: why Trump goes into the weeds on one of his favourite topics

President Donald Trump will tell you: The grass is always greener on his side of the fence. Trump has spoken repeatedly of his prowess with green lawns since returning to the White House — at some events even spending more time talking about it than the war in Iran, the economy or November’s midterm elections. It was on the president’s mind just five weeks after his second inauguration, when he pointed out the Oval Office window during an interview with The Spectator.

“You see the grass outside, right?” he 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 kept on the topic constantly ever since, saying as recently as Monday at a White House event with military spouses: “Grass is like humans.

It has a life.” Trump’s gravitation toward grass speaks to his decades as a New York real estate developer and personal love of building things and overseeing construction projects. But it is also an indication of how much time he spends on the golf course and his extensive, second-term efforts to revamp the White House and greater Washington in his own image. The president has already far outpaced the 26 times he mentioned grass during the entirety of his first four-year term.

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I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses The White House didn’t answer questions for this story. But the Republican president has made clear where his interest in — and knowledge of — grass comes from. “I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses,” he said while announcing the recipients of the Kennedy Centre Honours last August.

”And if you don’t have good grass, you’re not in business very long.” A week later, while visiting park police officers in Washington, the president declared, “I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world.” Matt Koch, the lawns research fellow for gardening giant Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, recently met the president to discuss planting new grass on the White House’s south lawn. He proudly considers himself a “grass nerd” and came away convinced Trump is 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.”

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