President Donald Trump has added a life-size bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson to the White House Rose Garden, expanding his effort to highlight America's Founding Fathers and reshape the White House grounds in honor of the nation's 250th anniversary, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The installation, which has not been formally announced by the White House, took place last week, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The statue depicts the nation's third president seated while holding a draft of the Declaration of Independence. It was sculpted by renowned artist George Lundeen, who said Trump personally called him this month to praise the work.

"I just wanted to thank you. The sculpture looks really beautiful," Trump said in a voicemail shared by Lundeen with The Washington Post.

The Jefferson sculpture is the fifth monument Trump has placed in the Rose Garden. It joins statues of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton, as well as "Freedom's Charge," a monument honoring Revolutionary War soldiers.

Three of those works — Franklin, Hamilton, and "Freedom's Charge" — are on loan from conservative businessman and art collector Harlan Crow, whose spokesman confirmed they were previously displayed on Crow's Old Parkland campus in Dallas.

The White House has not publicly identified the lender, saying only that the statues came from "generous private American patriots."

The White House declined to comment specifically on Crow's role, but said Trump's broader effort is intended "to beautify and honor our nation's capital during America's historic 250 anniversary celebrations."

Trump highlighted several of his Washington beautification projects Sunday in a series of Truth Social posts featuring restored monuments near the White House and Union Station.

The president has long advocated expanding public monuments honoring the nation's founders, presidents, and other historical figures, particularly after numerous statues were vandalized or removed during the nationwide protests that followed George Floyd's death in 2020, The Washington Post reported.

During his first term, Trump signed executive orders directing the federal government to protect existing monuments, restore damaged statues, and commission new memorials. The orders also required federally commissioned statues of historical figures to be realistic rather than abstract.

"These statues are silent teachers in solid form of stone and metal," Trump wrote in one 2020 executive order. "They preserve the memory of our American story and stir in us a spirit of responsibility for the chapters yet unwritten."

Rodney Mims Cook Jr., chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and a Trump appointee, said the president believes public monuments should celebrate American achievement.

"The president enjoys showcasing American excellence and those Americans who exemplify excellence," Cook said.

Lundeen said the Jefferson statue arrived at the White House after filmmaker Steven Barber helped introduce the work to administration officials.

The 77-year-old Nebraska sculptor said he was surprised to receive Trump's July Fourth phone call thanking him for the statue.

"When you're a farm boy from the middle of Nebraska, it's kind of neat to get a call from the president," Lundeen said. "You get a call like that, and you don't know if it is one of your buddies playing a trick on you."

Lundeen has produced numerous prominent public monuments across the country, including a sculpture commemorating the Apollo 11 astronauts at the Kennedy Space Center.

He also sculpted a bronze statue of Trump installed last year at the president's golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, depicting Trump holding a "Make America Great Again" hat with his fist raised in a pose inspired by his response to the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The Jefferson installation follows Trump's relocation of a George Washington statue from the Washington Monument grounds to the Rose Garden last year. The Hamilton and Franklin statues were added earlier this year.