The US President’s return to the Oval Office has brought with it a dramatic change in decor – turning the West Wing from a serious place of important work into a gaudy trophy room
Donald Trump’s White House is slowly turning into the Gold House – as the US President gradually redecorates his office bit by bit.
The US President’s return to the Oval Office has brought with it a dramatic change in decor – turning the West Wing from a serious place of important work into a gaudy palace full of trophies – bearing a stronger resemblance to a dictator’s palace (or a Donald Trump skyscraper) by the day.
Here’s how the most famous office in the world changed so dramatically in Trump’s first 100 days back in power.
1. It was pretty beige when Obama was in charge
It wasn’t just Barack Obama’s suits that were tan – his Oval Office was pretty beige too.
There were beige sofas, a beige table, a beige carpet, beige striped wallpaper. It was like they looked at a chicken nuggets and chips meal and thought, let’s design a room like that.
You might think this beige is, in fact, gold. But let us assure you, you haven’t seen anything yet.
2. Biden’s White House brought back the cool tones
The grey and royal blue tones of Joe Biden’s Oval Office were pretty classic – harking back to the similar designs used by Nixon and Clinton.
There was a simple austerity to it that reflected Biden’s image. It’s not a throne room, it’s a place of public service.
3. Then Trump came back, and now it’s all this
Put on your sunglasses.
Trump’s return to the White House has brought with it a tackiness not often seen in the office of a head of state. Not one that got there by winning an election, anyway.
It’s a combination of his natural taste in decor – he famously loves gold. Gold things. Gold walls. Gold skin tones – and a dictator’s eye for trinkets and trophies. Let’s break it down a little.
4. The gold eagle tables and vases
Look to the left and right of the fireplace and you’ll see two gold tables holding up busts of Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King Jr. Those tables were previously dark wood and didn’t have eagles on them.
Turning to the mantlepiece, you’ll notice a collection of seven increasingly gaudy vases that, if you squint a bit, gives the room a high school trophy cabinet vibe.
On the walls further to the left and right – actually placed on two hidden doors in the curved room – are two matching, gilded mirrors.
Now we turn to the fireplace itself…
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5. The fireplace. My word, the fireplace
Here’s what the fireplace looked like while Joe Biden was in office. It is, as you might expect from him, plain and grey.
Now let’s take a look at what on earth Donald Trump has done to it.
On top of the fireplace he’s hopefully glued – possibly drilled – a pair of generic gold sconces, which have either been spraypainted gold, or covered in gold leaf.
Zoom out a little and you can see two matching sconces randomly placed on the wall either side of the fireplace, just before you get to the mad gallery wall of previous presidents. Because you can’t have dead space on a wall, can you?
And when we say they’re generic sconces, we mean generic. Like, if you fancy picking up a set yourself, you can get them – sans gold – on Alibaba for under a tenner.
You’ll also notice the previously plain beige chairs have been reupholstered in a shiny gold pattern.
6. The trophy vibes go further than you think
You see that little gold box on the table in the middle of the Oval?
That’s a gold box of gold coasters – each of which has the Seal of the President on it, and around the edge of the box it says “TRUMP “and “47th”.
The massive plane on the table is Trump’s forthcoming redesigned Air Force One, something he’s been obsessed with getting since last time he was in office.
And behind the Resolute Desk, there’s even more tat.
There’s a full size replica of the Jules Rimet World Cup Trophy, for no adequately explained reason. Occasionally FIFA have also put the shiny new ‘plate that turns into a globe’ Club World Cup trophy on display in the Oval. Because cross advertising between allegedly corrupt organisations seems like a really obvious thing to do when you think about it.
7. And the icing on the cake…the mug shot
Just outside the Oval Office, in the place where people wait to be shown in for an audience with the President, is a framed front page of the New York Post, bearing Trump’s image.
And not just any image. It’s his mug shot, captured in Fulton County when he was arrested on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results. Which seems like exactly the kind of thing the leader of a democracy should be proudly displaying.