AP PHOTOS: A look back at the White House Rose Garden as Trump's paved makeover nears completion

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s paved makeover of the White House’s Rose Garden appears to be nearly finished.

The garden’s previously grassy lawn was fully covered by pavement as construction crews put the final touches on Trump’s project Friday. The last rows of pavers were put in place as workers taped off their edges.

It’s part of Trump’s bigger plan to add his own flourishes to the Executive Mansion and its grounds. His updates have already added flagpoles to the North and South Lawns, and he wants to build a new ballroom on the grounds.

The Republican president said in March he'd pave over the Rose Garden because the grass is always wet and is an inconvenience for women in high heels. The project was expected to be finished in August.

The Rose Garden was created during Democrat John F. Kennedy's administration. Presidents have used the space for everything from big announcements to Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremonies.

It’s Trump’s second makeover of the garden just outside the Oval Office. In 2020, first lady Melania Trump announced an update that included a limestone walking path bordering the central lawn. It also improved drainage and added accessibility for people with disabilities.

This is a photo gallery curated by Associated Press photo editors.

FILE - President Ronald Reagan is pulled along by his pet dog Lucky, while he and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher take a stroll in the White House Rose Garden, Feb. 20, 1985 in Washington. (AP Photo/Barry Thumma, File)

FILE - President George H. W. Bush holds an outdoor news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, April 11, 1992. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, File)

FILE - President Ronald Reagan delivers the commencement speech to the John A. Holmes High School senior class from Edenton, N.C., May 13, 1986 in Washington in the Rose Garden of the White House. (AP Photo/Scott Stewart, File)

FILE - President George Bush makes a statement about the transition of the administration of President-elect Barack Obama, Nov. 5, 2008, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

FILE - View of flowers in the Rose Garden of the White House, June 12, 1996, with the Oval Office in the background. (AP Photo/Ruth Fremson, File)

FILE - President Clinton, flanked by National Turkey Federation (NTF) Chairman Frank Gessell, left, and NTF Secretary Treasurer Jerry Jerome, watch a 45-pound turkey in the Rose Garden of the White House, Nov. 24, 1998 where the president, in a pre-Thanksgiving tradition, pardoned the bird. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, File)

FILE - President Barack Obama, right, and Vice President Joe Biden, left, have a beer with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., second from left, and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley in the Rose Garden of The White House in Washington, July 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - President John Kennedy walks toward the microphones on the White House portico outside his office on July 13, 1961 in Washington to address a group of 1,827 teenagers from 51 countries, exchange students who have been in the United States the past year. The students jammed the Rose Garden. Some were pushed to the ground in a surge to get closer to the President. (AP Photo/JR, File)

Construction work continues in the Rose Garden before President Donald Trump departs the White House, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Construction work continues in the Rose Garden before President Donald Trump departs the White House, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

The White House Rose Garden is seen under construction, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Construction continues in the Rose Garden of the White House, Friday, July 25, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Federal immigration agents deployed to Minneapolis have used aggressive crowd-control tactics that have become a dominant concern in the aftermath of the deadly shooting of a woman in her car last week.

They have pointed rifles at demonstrators and deployed chemical irritants early in confrontations. They have broken vehicle windows and pulled occupants from cars. They have scuffled with protesters and shoved them to the ground.

The government says the actions are necessary to protect officers from violent attacks. The encounters in turn have riled up protesters even more, especially as videos of the incidents are shared widely on social media.

What is unfolding in Minneapolis reflects a broader shift in how the federal government is asserting its authority during protests, relying on immigration agents and investigators to perform crowd-management roles traditionally handled by local police who often have more training in public order tactics and de-escalating large crowds.

Experts warn the approach runs counter to de-escalation standards and risks turning volatile demonstrations into deadly encounters.

The confrontations come amid a major immigration enforcement surge ordered by the Trump administration in early December, which sent more than 2,000 officers from across the Department of Homeland Security into the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Many of the officers involved are typically tasked with arrests, deportations and criminal investigations, not managing volatile public demonstrations.

Tensions escalated after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman killed by an immigration agent last week, an incident federal officials have defended as self-defense after they say Good weaponized her vehicle.

The killing has intensified protests and scrutiny of the federal response.

On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota asked a federal judge to intervene, filing a lawsuit on behalf of six residents seeking an emergency injunction to limit how federal agents operate during protests, including restrictions on the use of chemical agents, the pointing of firearms at non-threatening individuals and interference with lawful video recording.

“There’s so much about what’s happening now that is not a traditional approach to immigration apprehensions,” said former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldaña.

Saldaña, who left the post at the beginning of 2017 as President Donald Trump's first term began, said she can't speak to how the agency currently trains its officers. When she was director, she said officers received training on how to interact with people who might be observing an apprehension or filming officers, but agents rarely had to deal with crowds or protests.

“This is different. You would hope that the agency would be responsive given the evolution of what’s happening — brought on, mind you, by the aggressive approach that has been taken coming from the top,” she said.

Ian Adams, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, said the majority of crowd-management or protest training in policing happens at the local level — usually at larger police departments that have public order units.

“It’s highly unlikely that your typical ICE agent has a great deal of experience with public order tactics or control,” Adams said.

DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a written statement that ICE officer candidates receive extensive training over eight weeks in courses that include conflict management and de-escalation. She said many of the candidates are military veterans and about 85% have previous law enforcement experience.

“All ICE candidates are subject to months of rigorous training and selection at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, where they are trained in everything from de-escalation tactics to firearms to driving training. Homeland Security Investigations candidates receive more than 100 days of specialized training," she said.

Ed Maguire, a criminology professor at Arizona State University, has written extensively about crowd-management and protest- related law enforcement training. He said while he hasn't seen the current training curriculum for ICE officers, he has reviewed recent training materials for federal officers and called it “horrifying.”

Maguire said what he's seeing in Minneapolis feels like a perfect storm for bad consequences.

“You can't even say this doesn't meet best practices. That's too high a bar. These don't seem to meet generally accepted practices,” he said.

“We’re seeing routinely substandard law enforcement practices that would just never be accepted at the local level,” he added. “Then there seems to be just an absence of standard accountability practices.”

Adams noted that police department practices have "evolved to understand that the sort of 1950s and 1960s instinct to meet every protest with force, has blowback effects that actually make the disorder worse.”

He said police departments now try to open communication with organizers, set boundaries and sometimes even show deference within reason. There's an understanding that inside of a crowd, using unnecessary force can have a domino effect that might cause escalation from protesters and from officers.

Despite training for officers responding to civil unrest dramatically shifting over the last four decades, there is no nationwide standard of best practices. For example, some departments bar officers from spraying pepper spray directly into the face of people exercising Constitutional speech. Others bar the use of tear gas or other chemical agents in residential neighborhoods.

Regardless of the specifics, experts recommend that departments have written policies they review regularly.

“Organizations and agencies aren’t always familiar with what their own policies are,” said Humberto Cardounel, senior director of training and technical assistance at the National Policing Institute.

“They go through it once in basic training then expect (officers) to know how to comport themselves two years later, five years later," he said. "We encourage them to understand and know their training, but also to simulate their training.”

Adams said part of the reason local officers are the best option for performing public order tasks is they have a compact with the community.

“I think at the heart of this is the challenge of calling what ICE is doing even policing,” he said.

"Police agencies have a relationship with their community that extends before and after any incidents. Officers know we will be here no matter what happens, and the community knows regardless of what happens today, these officers will be here tomorrow.”

Saldaña noted that both sides have increased their aggression.

“You cannot put yourself in front of an armed officer, you cannot put your hands on them certainly. That is impeding law enforcement actions,” she said.

“At this point, I’m getting concerned on both sides — the aggression from law enforcement and the increasingly aggressive behavior from protesters.”

Law enforcement officers at the scene of a reported shooting Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

People cover tear gas deployed by federal immigration officers outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

A man is pushed to the ground as federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A woman covers her face from tear gas as federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)