The president’s personal design choice is clear as the oval office and White House grounds get a makeover. “It keeps flowing through my real estate juices,” he says.
Donald Trump installs diet cola buttons in an oval office
From Diet Coke buttons to Andrew Jackson’s portrait, take a look inside Donald Trump’s oval office decorations.
- President Donald Trump is making a personal design pick at the White House.
- These include gold thriving throughout the oval office, a patriotic touch, and a huge flag pole outside.
- Just like his Mar-a-Lago real estate, Trump has set up a stone patio instead of the Rose Garden. The work is being paid by a nonprofit organization that also funds work at the Washington Monument.
WASHINGTON – Donald Trump once said real estate runs in his blood.
In the late 1970s he created a flashy entrance into the New York City real estate scene. When he bought Mar-A-Lago, a South Florida property built for the socialite Margiley Meriweather Post, he added a 20,000 square foot ballroom. In Washington, DC, he transformed the city’s historic old post office into a luxury hotel.
Fifty years later, he has a new pet project: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Six months after he returned to the White House, Trump’s oval office is immersed in a sea of gold, giving us a glimpse of his biggest design approach. Golden appliques above the fireplace, golden mirror, ornate rococo style 18th and 19th London and French Century Dessert Stands and French Vases Sit in the Mantle. The walls are chocolate blocks with paintings of the former president in ornate gold frames. The cabinet room is equipped with a new ceiling medallion and a grandfather’s watch.
“I chose it all for myself,” he said. “I’m very proud of that.”
There is even a drawing of Trump by an 87-year-old artist. He said he was surprised to learn that his work was on display at West Wing.
Meanwhile, Trump tore the lawn of his rose garden in favor of a “gorgeous stone” patio – – Work paid by the same nonprofit organization that funded the Washington Monument restoration work after the 2011 earthquake – – They announced plans to build a ballroom in the White House. He recently built two 88-foot-high flagpole on the grass south and north of the White House.
Certainly, for decades, the President has put his own personal touch on his oval office and the White House. President Franklin D. Roosevelt built an indoor swimming pool for physical therapy, dealing with polio and President Richard Nixon.
Oval offices often get new carpets and other furniture for the new president. Under Joe Biden, it was clearly muted and boasted a modest look. The Swedish ivy, which existed in an oval office for decades, decorated the mantle of a fireplace, busts of famous civil rights leaders sat on a desk, and several golden portraits of past presidents hanging from the wall.
But for Trump, the job feels much more personal.
“It keeps flowing through my real estate juices,” he told reporters in February.
Gold trends
One common thread to carry out most internal renovation efforts: Gold Trends.
At a recent meeting in the cabinet room, Trump swayed poeticly about the need for a “gold leaf” in trim, a decorative ceiling medallion around the hanging lights, finding a frame suitable for a new portrait of the president adorning the walls of the room.
Barbara Les, the former vice president of the Trump organization that oversaw the construction, has long been familiar with Trump’s appeal to colour gold. While working on projects like Trump Tower and the Plaza Hotel, he was adamant about incorporating sophisticated bronze and brass that could give him a gold look, she said. Public areas such as atriums, ballrooms and restaurants were filled with polished bronze or brass on door frames, handrails, elevators and ceilings.
“He used to use the word ‘class’ a lot, and it was a luxury for him,” Res told USA Today. “It conveyed the illusion of taste and wealth, so he wanted everything to be rich.”
For the Trump Tower Triplex apartment in the early 80s, he hired a veteran Angelo Don Hear of famous designs to hire the location.
After trying to reason with him considering Trump’s favorite colour (“That’s the worst thing you can do at Donald,” Res said), Don Hear introduced a subtle touch of gold.
“That wasn’t normal, but it was pretty much normal,” Res said with a laugh.
After visiting Russia in the late 1980s, Trump’s sensibility for “highly sophisticated metals” became overdrive and toured locations such as the Hermitage State Museum and the Winter Palace, RE said.
“He’s back and he’s changed everything,” she said. “He hired a man who was a decorator for the casino’s high roller suite. They have lots of gold and mirrors everywhere.”
After the apartment was finished, RES said he was working in the 58-storey Midtown Manhattan building.
“I said, ‘How can I sleep here?” ” she said. “He was extremely insulted by it.”
Trump has always looked at design details. On his recent presidential visit to Qatar, he praised the white marble at the palace, saying “it’s very difficult to buy.”
“As a builder… this is perfect marble, which is what they call ‘perfect’,” he said.
Decorating the White House
Now, as commander, Trump has access to the White House safe.
A treasure trove of silver and bronze gold objects that he may have marveled at palaces and museums around the world, is at his disposal. And he’s not wasting his chances to play the decorator. At a cabinet meeting in June, he said he had spent a lot of time there.
“The Vault is where we have a lot of great photos and artwork,” he said. He then provided insights into his obsession with a right-sized, correct-looking frame. “I’m a frame guy. Sometimes I like frames more than I like photography,” he said.
When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Kearney visited the White House in May, Trump tried to highlight his efforts.
“As you become more and more beautiful with love, you will see a new, improved oval office,” he said. “You know, we treat it in great love and 24 carat gold.”
Apart from gold, the president supports a patriotic touch when design flourishes. A copy of the Declaration of Independence occupies the pride of an oval office location placed behind two blue velvet curtains hanging from a golden stick. There are also bright and cheerful design elements, such as colorful military campaign ribbons on the flag. Trump’s paintings, adjacent to fellow Republican presidents, are hanging in a corridor near an oval office by artist Dick Bobnick by Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.
When USA Today tracked down 87-year-old artist Bobnick, based in Burnsville, Minnesota, he said he didn’t know that his work adorned the walls of the West Wing. He said he sent the photo print to the White House but received no response.
The Trump supporter said he wanted to portray “three of the most powerful and most influential presidents that this country has ever had in the most intense era.”
Bobnick, who has never visited Washington, DC, said the prints were “flattering” that made an impression.
“I still have the original,” he said.
Trump also believes the White House lot needs improvement.
Installing the flagpole on the White House lawn in June cost around $50,000 each.
Congress will grant all new presidents a $100,000 allowance to be paid to all new presidents to renovate private residences and oval offices for furniture, curtains and more.
Currently, work is underway in Rose Garden, just outside the oval office, with bilateral and newspaper conferences with world leaders often being held. Like a stone patio like Mar Lago, the well-maintained lawn burst. Trump said he reached a decision after seeing a woman in high heels at an event struggling with muddy grass.
The leaves containing 200 rose bushes planted during the 2020 renovation, directed by First Lady Melania Trump, are uninterrupted.
“President Trump is a heart builder and he wants to help make the White House as exceptional as possible for a generation of Americans,” White House spokesman Carolyn Leavitt told USA Today.
The Rose Garden Project, scheduled to be completed in August, is funded by the Trust of National Mall, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that has sponsored more than $75 million in restoration projects for the National Park Service since 2007.
Some projects they led include a $22 million recovery for the design and construction of a US police horse stable and education center at the National Mall in 2023, and a $7.5 million recovery at the Washington Memorial after the 2011 earthquake.
Julie Moore, a spokesman for the nonprofit, said he would accept private donations to support the National Park Service project in the White House gardens, which are not supported by federal funding. Moore said the project would not use taxpayer dollars, but declined to name the donor, saying he chose to remain anonymous. Moore said funding for the project has already been secured.
White House Ballroom?
Trump’s next project promises to be spectacular once it’s off the ground.
Trump first came up with the idea of a ballroom like Mar Lago when he first ran to President in 2016. The Obama administration confirmed to USA Today in 2016 that Trump had offered to spend $100 million on the new White House Ballroom, but the offer was quickly denied.
At the time, Trump debated a White House event for foreign officials held in tents, saying it was an inappropriate way to entertain them.
State dinners are generally held in the East Room. The East Room, at 3,000 square feet, is the largest of the state’s rooms and the only room running the entire width of an executive apartment. It is also a place where dances, receptions, concerts and newspaper conferences take place.
At the executive signing at the East Room in February, Trump recalled the offer to both Obama and Biden.
“This will be a reception room,” he said, referring to his idea of the improved East Room, which served as the entrance to the ballroom he proposed. He said he felt the East Room was “too crowded.”
In June, Trump announced in the Truth Social Post that he had “tested” the site on the east side of the White House, according to White House officials. Trump also highlighted his construction and real estate qualifications for the Post, saying before him the president had no “knowledge or experience in doing something like that.”
“There is an ongoing discussion on how to implement this plan (for the ballroom),” Leavitt said.
While Trump’s Day work may have turned into a heavier subject, the passion project from his previous life is still something that brings him joy, he recently meditated on a society of truth.
“These are “fun” projects I do while thinking about the world economy, the US, China, Russia and many other countries, places and events,” he writes.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA Today. x You can follow her at @swapnavenugopal
