By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs (AZ-05) and Abe Hamadeh (AZ-08) joined President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday. They attended the inaugural gathering of the new “Rose Garden Club” on the recently revamped Rose Garden patio.
At the exclusive event, Biggs and Hamadeh were joined by other key leaders in Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, as well as Vice President Vance and cabinet officials like Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
As reported by USA Today, President Trump introduced the newly constructed patio, formerly a grass lawn, as the “Rose Garden Club.” It will welcome Congressional leaders as well as “people that can bring peace and success to our country.”
Speaking at the posh dinner Trump told the gathered Congressional leaders:
“I’ll tell you what we did to the grass. It was not usable. The reason we would have a press conference, women in particular were sinking deep into the mud. And at some point, it’s time to change. We picked a great stone. I may have a great speaker system, I hope. I hope everybody hears us perfectly. But a lot of people are wondering why you’re here tonight. And I’ll tell you simply why you’re here. Because…you are the ones that have been my friends, and you know what I’m talking about. And you’re smart and even brilliant people. But you would tell people… ‘ I don’t speak to the President much because I always vote with the President.’ Mike Johnson who’s going to go down as one of the great Speakers of our time or any other time. Mike, thank you very much. I said, ‘Mike, I want to do something. I want to reward the people that have confidence in their President, and you, and vote for us. And that includes some of the senators that are here.’”
Initially, the President planned to welcome a group of high-level business figures the previous evening, but the weather intervened. “They didn’t want to have rain on top of their beautiful heads,” Trump said. The group reportedly included Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI.
He explained, “You know, you’re the first ones in this great place. We’ll call it ‘The Rose Garden Club. And it’s a club for senators, for congresspeople, and for people in Washington, and frankly, people that can bring peace and success to our country. And you’re invited as congressmen. We have mostly congressmen and senators tonight. Again, you know why you’re first? Because it rained last night. I had the high-tech guys…and they didn’t want to have rain on top of their beautiful heads.
“We had the highest IQ last night in the history of the world, and we took them inside because of two reasons. Number one, I wanted you to be number one. And you were. They could’ve endured a little rain, but I wanted you to be number one. And I would match IQ tonight here with what we had last night, meaning IQ of common sense and survival. I think you have a higher IQ in certain ways, let me tell you. But we had a great group last night, and they’re investing tens of billions, they’re investing trillions of dollars. Some of the companies are investing literally trillions of dollars in this great country of ours.”
In early August, Trump told reporters the Rose Garden was “always wet and damp.” He added, “When we had a press conference, you’d sink into the mud. If it rained it would take three, four, five days to dry out and we couldn’t use it really for the intended purpose.”
In a post to X, Congressman Hamadeh thanked President Trump writing, “Honored to be at the first Rose Garden Club dinner — beautiful event, thank you Mr. President. Keep Making America Great Again!”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
