An 11-year-old boy got the chance to cut the grass at the White House on Friday, fulfilling a wish he wrote to President Donald Trump about in July.
Frank Giaccio pushed a lawn mower through the Rose Garden after spending the morning with a White House groundskeeper touring the 18 acres that surround America’s presidential mansion.
When Trump walked out to meet the Virginia boy, Giaccio didn’t stop. He kept his safety goggles on and earplugs in, and kept pushing the Honda mower.
‘Wow! Great job, Frank! Great job!’ Trump said.
Photographers and video camera operators laughed as Giaccio kept going and Trump was forced to walk alongside him – pronouncing his lawn-cutting ‘perfect’ and asking: ‘Have you done this before?’
Eleven-year-old Frank ‘FX’ Giaccio (left) high-fived President Donald Trump on Friday while mowing the grass in the Rose Garden of the White House
Giaccio, who runs a business called FX Mowing, wrote a letter to Trump expressing admiration for his business background and offered to mow the White House grass – and he didn’t stop clipping the lawn when Trump came out of the Oval Office to greet him
Giaccio, in safety goggles and earplugs, had to be told by his dad to take a break when Trump arrived
Giaccio and his dad Greg got a personal tour of the Oval Office after the lawn mowing was done, meeting Vice President Mike Pence and posing with the president for photos behind the Resolute Desk
Ultimately the boy’s dad coacxed him into stopping long enough for a presidnetial high-five.
‘The future of the country, right there,’ Trump told reporters. ‘We’re lucky. That’s the real future of the country.’
Asked about his future, Giaccio told the president he wanted to be a Navy SEAL when he grows up.
‘Well, he’ll make it,’ Trump said. ‘There’s no doubt about it. That’s a good choice.’
‘This is Frank,’ the president announced, as he put his hands on the boy’s houlders and posed for photos. ‘He’s going to be very famous, going to be a Navy SEAL someday. Going to do great things for our country.’
Trump invited Giaccio and his father, Greg, into the White House to meet Vice President Mike Pence.
‘We’ll bring him into the Oval Office. Maybe he’ll be president!’ he said.
The Giaccios posed for pictures behind Trump’s desk – and later visited the press briefing room, where the boy stood behind the podium.
Frank wrote the White House in July and offered to mow the lawn, giving Trump his choice of a power mower, a push mower or a weed whacker
Giaccio took a turn posing behind the podium in the press briefing room, where press secretary Sarah Sanders had read his letter out loud last month
Trump joshed around with the 11-year-old Virginia boy and praised his handiwork as ‘perfect’
The president announced to reporters and photographers that Frank, who goes by the nickname ‘FX,’ wants to be a Navy SEAL when he grows up
Giaccio’s saga began in that room on August 2, when press secretary Sarah Sanders read a letter he had written to the president.
‘It would be my honor to mow the White House lawn for some weekend for you,’ Giaccio, then 10, wrote.
‘Even though I’m only 10, I’d like to show the nation what young people like me are ready for. I admire your business background and have started my own business.’
‘I have been mowing my neighbors’ lawns for some time. Please see the attached flier. Here’s a list of what I have and you are free to pick whatever you want: power mower, push mower, and weed whacker. I can bring extra fuel for the power mower and charged batteries for the weed whacker,’ he wrote.
Giaccio, from nearby Falls Church, Virginia, runs a business called FX Mowing. His middle name is Xavier.
During her first weeks as press secretary, Sanders occasionally read letters from Trump’s supporters – including some children – during press briefings.
In July she read an adoring letter from a Dylan, a 9-year-old boy who said his nickname was ‘Pickle.’
Trump’s Internet foes debated for days whether the boy existed or the letter was a hoax.
The Washington Post located the boy.
The White House published a short video of Gioccio’s experience on Friday afternoon.
‘Hello, my name is FX,’ he says in the clip, ‘and I just mowed the Rose Garden.’
Trump tweeted: ‘Frank “FX” Giaccio – On behalf of @FLOTUS Melania & myself, THANK YOU for doing a GREAT job this morning! @NatlParkService gives you an A+!’