WASHINGTON — Washington's hottest club has everything — Cabinet secretaries, a new stone patio, food from the White House kitchen and even a playlist curated by President Donald Trump.
But good luck getting a spot on the guest list. So far, only some of the president's political allies, business executives and administration officials have been invited.
Members of Congress listen as President Donald Trump speaks at a dinner in the Rose Garden of the White House on Sept. 5 in Washington.
In Trump's remake of the White House, the Rose Garden is now the Rose Garden Club, with the iconic lawn outside the Oval Office transformed into a taxpayer-supported imitation of the patio at Mar-a-Lago, the president's private Florida resort.
Trump debuted the name during his first formal dinner there this month and has included it on his official public schedule, too.
Presidents have always used invitations to the White House as a prestigious reward for friends and supporters, but Trump’s rebranding of an iconic area of the People’s House is unprecedented. It’s a fresh example of how the billionaire Republican is replicating the gilded and cloistered bubble of his private life inside the confines of the most famous government housing in the country.
President Donald Trump sits with Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., left, and Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, at a dinner Sept. 5 in the Rose Garden of the White House.
In his first term, Trump had an eponymous hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue a few blocks away from the White House and would go there often for dinner. But the Trump family sold the property during President Joe Biden's administration, leaving him without a uniquely Trump establishment in the city in his second term.
Now he doesn’t need to go anywhere to enter his comfort zone and, in fact, has been spending less time at his home on his golf course in central New Jersey than he did in the first year of his first term.
To make the Rose Garden his own, Trump paved over the grass and set out tables and chairs, complete with yellow-and-white striped umbrellas that resemble the ones at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida. He also installed a speaker system to play his favorite tunes as he does in Florida.
The project cost about $2 million and was paid for by the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit that works with the National Park Service.
The events on the new White House patio so far have been official in nature and are part of the long tradition of presidential entertaining at the Executive Mansion, with military social aides on hand to escort guests and the kitchen staff tasked to whip up the sustenance.
President Donald Trump speaks at a dinner Sept. 5 in the Rose Garden of the White House.
Trump, who rose to fame as a New York real estate executive, also ran casinos and hotels, and he still loves playing host. He frequently flatters his guests as brilliant and beautiful and relishes the ability to gather the country’s most powerful people.
All presidents invite family members and friends, lawmakers and political allies, donors and business leaders and others to the White House for reasons that range from bill signings and policy announcements to picnics and lavish state dinners.
Trump is expected to entertain on the white marble patio, in the shadow of the Washington Monument, as often as he can, the White House said.
Taxpayers pick up the tab for some of the social events hosted by a president, such as a gathering for Republican lawmakers. Congress gives the White House money to pay for events like these since the Executive Mansion is also the president’s home.
President Donald Trump, center, stands with Judge Amy Coney Barrett as they arrive for a news conference to announce Barrett as his nominee to the Supreme Court on Sept. 26, 2020, in the Rose Garden at the White House.
Events of a more personal nature, like a birthday party or the funeral service Trump held at the White House in 2020 for his younger brother, Robert, would have to be paid for by the president since it is not considered government, or the people’s, business.
The official debut of the Rose Garden Club was supposed to be with tech titans such as Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Sundar Pichai and Microsoft's Satya Nadella. However, rain forced Trump to move the Sept. 4 event indoors to the ornate State Dining Room.
The honor of being first instead went to Republican lawmakers, who gathered around two dozen tables under a clear night sky on Sept. 5.
Holding a microphone, Trump welcomed his guests by saying “you are the first ones in this great place.” He described it as “a club” for “people that can bring peace and success to our country.”
Table settings featured white tablecloths and yellow roses, plus a place card that said, “The Rose Garden Club at the White House.”
Dinner started with a Rose Garden Salad that included tomatoes and iceberg lettuce, followed by steak or chicken, or pasta primavera for vegetarians. Chocolate cake was dessert.
Trump sat at a corner table with House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas and Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania. Other lawmakers circulated by Trump’s table for photos with the president. Some were posted online.
"It was a honor to be there,” wrote Rep. John McGuire of Virginia.
Photos: The White House Rose Garden through the years
President Truman congratulates three veterans of Koreas fighting after he presented them the Medal of Honor at White House Rose garden ceremony on April 11, 1952 in Washington. Left to right: Marine N/Sgt. Harold S. Wilson, Birmingham, Ala., the President; Army Lt. Lloyd L. Burke, Stuttgart, Ark., and Army Corp. Rodolfo P. Hernandez, Fowler, California. Relatives and officials (background) attended the event. (AP Photo)
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, left, and President Jimmy Carter have a lunch in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on April 8, 1980. Sadat is meeting with Carter trying to break through the stalled peace talks with Israel. (AP Photo)
President Bush, right, and former South African President Nelson Mandela speak with reporters Monday, Nov. 12, 2001, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, after the two met to review Mandela's ongoing effort to bolster peace in Burundi. Bush commented about American Airlines Flight 587 that was on its way to the Dominican Republic with 255 people aboard when it crashed moments after takeoff in New York. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Members of Congress listen as President Donald Trump speaks at a dinner in the Rose Garden of the White House, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The Rose Garden, Colonnade and Oval Office are seen at the White House while President Obama was inside the Oval Office during a snowstorm that is blanketing the East Coast in Washington, Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
President Richard Nixon has a pat on the back for former Defense Secretary Melvin Laird after it was announced in Washington that Laird will become Nixon's counselor for domestic affairs, June 7, 1973. Walking with them in the White House Rose Garden is Gen Alexander Haig, who is retiring from the Army to become presidential assistant in charge of running the White House staff. (AP Photo/Henry Burroughs)
FILE - The former Tricia Nixon and her husband Edward Finch Cox, walk from the altar at the White House Rose Garden after their marriage, June 12, 1971. Obscured by the bride and groom are matron of honor Julie Nixon Eisenhower and best man Howard E. Cox Jr. In the background is the Rev. Dr. Edward G. Latch, chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, who performed the wedding. (AP Photo, File)
Construction in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Paper squares are taped to wall along the Colonnade outside along the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The recently renovated Rose Garden is pictured at the White House,, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The Rose Garden of The White House is seen from the Colonnade Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Exterior view of White House Building in Washington and Mrs. Warren Hardings Rose Garden in 1921. (AP Photo)
Shown in photo is White House South Portico and portion of Rose Garden in Washington, D.C. in 1921. (AP Photo)
President Dwight Eisenhower talks to members of the 2nd Atlantic Conference of Young Political Leaders in the White House rose garden in Washington, June 1, 1960. The youth group is meeting under the sponsorship of the Atlantic Treaty Association and the American Council on NATO. (AP Photo/Henry Burroughs)
President John Kennedy pulls Ladybird Johnson, wife of the vice president, up to the microphones during a ceremony in the rose garden behind the White House on May 24, 1961 in Washington. Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his wife were welcomed home from their globe-girdling fact-finding tour. Also prominent in the group are speaker Sam Rayburn, at left, behind Mrs. Johnson and Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Ill, is at center on the steps. (AP Photo)
Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.), addresses approximately 300 students at the White House in Washington on June 22, 1962, as President John F. Kennedy listens. The students who are going to Africa under the sponsorship of Operation Crossroads Africa, met with the chief executive, Humphrey, and Dr. James Robinson, right, of New York City, in the Rose Garden. Operation Crossroads Africa is privately financed, interracial, nondenominational organization. (AP Photo/Henry Burroughs)
President Ronald Reagan sits beside Supreme Court nominee Sandra O’Connor as they pose for photographers in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, July 16, 1981. The President said he is confident Mrs. O’Connor will be confirmed as the first woman Supreme Court justice. (AP Photo)
U.S. President George H. Bush, with Secretary of State James A. Baker III at right hands a pen to Federal Republic of Germany Ambassador Juergen Ruhfus, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 1990 in a White House Rose Garden ceremony concerning a treaty on the reunification of East and West Germany. (AP Photo/Doug Mills)
U.S. President George H. Bush pets a turkey in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 1990 in Washington as Wyatt Upchurch, president of the National Turkey Federation who presented the bird looks on. The Thanks giving turkey is given to a animal farm near Washington. (AP Photo/Marcy Nighswander)
The Jacqueline Kennedy Garden is seen with the White House behind it in Washington Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009. Tens of thousands of people are expected to stream through the White House gates this weekend for a rare opportunity to see the fragrant roses, blue salvias and towering, decades-old trees that beautify the president's back yard. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
