In just seven extraordinary months, Donald Trump’s administration has left an unprecedented mark on the United States. From rewriting the rules of free trade to upending the norms of due process and challenging scientific orthodoxy, no corner of the country has remained untouched, including the president’s own centre of power: the Oval Office.
Leaning into his former career as a real estate developer and hotelier, the president has, in his own words, applied some “Trump touches” to the room’s decor. The results have split opinions, with some calling the revamped office a symbol of America’s new golden age, while other have compared it to a professional wrestler’s dressing room.
On a tour of the Oval Office in March, Trump was asked about some of the new gold details by a Fox News host. Describing the room as needing “a little life”, he went on to explain how difficult it is to get gold paint to look like gold.
That apparent impediment did not hold the president back from continuing his refurbishments. Over the following months, the “goldening” ratcheted up, with gold trimming across the ceiling, door frames and fireplace. Even the sculpted cherubim inside door frames were painted gold.
Over the months of his administration, the number of of gold trophies and vases littered across the mantlepiece have multiplied and there are now even gold coasters with Trump’s name on them.
A White House spokesperson told Fox News that the gold – “of the highest quality” – was all paid for by Trump personally.
The president has also multiplied the number of paintings on display, with almost 20 images of presidential predecessors adorning the walls. His predecessor, Joe Biden, had just six paintings on the walls. Barack Obama had pictures of just two former presidents.
Right: The Oval Office in 2022 – a meeting between Zelenskyy and Joe Biden. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
The office is rounded out with pictures of the Trump family, a copy of the declaration of independence and gifts from visitors and well-wishers – including the Fifa Club World Cup trophy, which was given to Trump by the organisation’s president.
The White House was approached for comment, but aides have previously told US media that every addition has come at the president’s direction. To help in this venture, Trump has reportedly called in the help of his personal “gold guy”.
John Icart, a 70-year-old cabinet maker from Florida, was reportedly flown to Washington on Air Force One to provide the White House with the flourishes he brought to Trump’s Palm Beach mansion, Mar-a-Lago. The gilded carvings Icart added to the room prompted White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to describe it as a “golden office for the golden age”.
Others have been more critical. It was musician Jack White who compared the room to a wrestler’s dressing room, calling it “vulgar” and “gaudy”.
Above: The Oval Office mantle piece in 2021, soon after Joe Biden’s inauguration. Photograph: Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Reporter Jon Keegan pointed out that decorative medallions that festoon the walls of the room also bared more than a passing resemblance to “Foam Veneer Accessories” available from Chinese e-commerce site Ali Baba for just $1 a piece.
The gold artefacts that have multiplied across the mantle piece are known to have a more auspicious pedigree. Coming from the White House’s own collection, they include a 19th-century French compotergilded urns given to president James Monroe and silver dating to the Eisenhower administration.
Trump’s style is said to have been inspired the Versailles hall of mirrors, and he has in the past bragged that the ballroom of his Florida home was itself modelled on the French palace.
But in making these changes to the Oval Office, Trump has placed himself in a long tradition that sees every resident of the White House adjust the decor to their liking, including new furniture, wallpaper and rugs. But perhaps no president has gone further to transport the aesthetics of their pre-presidential home to Washington.
In the final year of his presidency, Obama was asked what art or object in the Oval Office was most significant to him. He pointed to the carpet beneath his feet. Handmade for him in a Michigan studio, the almost 10-metre-wide rug featured quotes around the perimeter from US leaders including Abraham Lincoln, John F Kennedy and Theodore Roosevelt.
It was a line from Martin Luther King that Obama was said to be most fond of: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
A few months later, as Trump began moving into the White House and America’s winding story took another unexpected turn, Obama’s prized carpet was jettisoned, replaced by a floor covering with a golden tinge.
