The president hosted grieving mothers, Gold Star families, and anti-drug advocates on the South Lawn — then spent a good chunk of the afternoon talking tariffs, fentanyl, and drug prices.

It started as a Mother’s Day event. It ended as something closer to a full policy address — with a Rose Garden tour thrown in. That’s just how things go when Donald Trump has a microphone and a captive audience on a sunny spring afternoon.

The president gathered Angel Moms, Gold Star mothers, anti-drug advocates, and administration officials in the newly renovated White House Rose Garden on Friday — a genuinely moving occasion that also, in true Trump fashion, became a vehicle for talking about border statistics, prescription drug pricing, and why you should consider buying a Dell computer.

First stop: the Presidential Walk of Fame

Before anything else, guests got the tour. Trump has added what he’s calling the “Presidential Walk of Fame” — or Wall of Fame, he polled the crowd and called it a tie — a stretch of black granite portraits running from George Washington to, as he put it, “a guy named Trump.” The stones that were previously cracked and in poor condition have been replaced, and the president was clearly proud of the result.

He also took credit for the roses. The garden, he explained, had been lacking in actual roses for some time. “We cornered the market on roses,” he told guests, “and you deserve them.” The grass, meanwhile, has been replaced with white stone paving — a change he traced back to a very specific problem: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins ruining her shoes in the mud before speeches. “Her speeches would never be as good as they could have been,” he said, “because she was always concerned about ruining her shoes.” After 150 years, he declared, they gave up on the grass.

WHO WAS IN THE GARDEN

Angel Moms Mothers who lost children to crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, several of whom Trump has known since his first campaign