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Trump Hosts a Rose Garden Dinner for Congressional Republicans, Sep. 5, 2025

September 5, 2025 · The White House · 0:22:17

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump hosted a dinner in the renovated Rose Garden on September 5, 2025, carried on the White House channel — the first event showcasing the garden’s new stone surface, which the President explained replaced grass that was “not usable” at press conferences. “We never touched a rose,” he said. “The roses are in full bloom.”

The guest list was the point. “A lot of people are wondering why you’re here tonight,” the President told the members. “You are the ones that I never had to call at 4:00 o’clock in the morning. You are the ones that have been my friends… You would tell people, you know, I don’t speak to the President much because I always vote with the President.” He praised Speaker Mike Johnson — “who’s going to go down as one of the great speakers of our time, or any other time” — explained the dinner was originally for the House with senators to follow, and contrasted the guests with the “16, 17, or 18” members whose late-night calls had made passage difficult on past bills. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma offered grace, praying for the President, the Vice President, and members of the military, intelligence community, and law enforcement.

Why it matters

The Rose Garden dinner is the President’s public accounting of his congressional coalition — loyalty rewarded in the open, the holdout bloc named by number if not by name — staged in the renovated garden he had toured and defended through the summer, a week of governing-by-relationship captured in one evening.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Hosts a Dinner, Sep. 5, 2025” (official upload, embedded above; the upload’s description places the event at the White House). All characterizations as stated by the President at the dinner.