Melania Trump hits back at historian over Rose Garden's 'dishonorable' criticism

Former United States first lady Melania Trump had maintained complete silence since leaving the White House in January this year, but has now broken it to hit back at her critics.

The former FLOTUS, whose renovations of the White House Rose Garden last year had invited widespread criticism, had not made any clarification in her defense back then. However, when a historian tweeted his disapproval of Melania's work with a picture of the garden last week, Melania's office took to the social media platform to hit back at his claims.

The tweet by Melania's office on Sunday dubbed Michael Beschloss's remarks "misleading" and "dishonorable" and also questioned his credibility, while noting that the pictures he had shared of the garden were taken when it hadn't fully bloomed.

"@BeschlossDC has proven his ignorance by showing a picture of the Rose Garden in its infancy. The Rose Garden is graced with a healthy & colorful blossoming of roses. His misleading information is dishonorable & he should never be trusted as a professional historian," the tweet read.

Beschloss, the presidential historian for NBC News and a frequent critic of former President Trump, had shared a picture of a largely flowerless Rose Garden last week. He captioned the picture, "Evisceration of White House Rose Garden was completed a year ago this month, and here was the grim result—decades of American history made to disappear."

Melania's office retorted with a picture of a side lawn filled with fresh flowers, but did not share any photographs of the complete garden.

While revealing the newly-renovated garden in August last year, Melania's office at the White House had said that she wanted to make the area more closely resemble the original 1962 design by Rachel Lambert Mellon during the Kennedy administration. However, her move instead sparked criticism for drastically changing the look of the historic garden.

In addition, a petition surfaced in April this year calling for first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff to reverse the changes to the Rose Garden. "We want Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff to take this on and restore the Rose Garden to [former first lady Jackie Kennedy's] original design," read the petition which garnered more than 80,000 signatures.