In addition to gold or gold pieces, the president of the states put a total of 20 paintings on the wall – Biden had six
While President Donald Trump dramatically remodel the federal government, there is also another historical transformation of its presidency: the oval room.
Almost eight weeks ago, since he returned to office, Trump has tripled the number of paintings hanging from the cabinet walls. The shelves and surfaces were adorned with flags, statues and ornaments.
And, maintaining the style it joined for decades, there is gold everywhere: new figures in Vermeil [prata dourada] and medallions in the fireplace, golden eagles at the support tables, Dourados Rococo mirrors on the doors and, nestled on the front of the doors, small gold cherubim sent from sea-lag, Donald Trump’s residence in Florida. Even the television command is wrapped in gold.
According to two people familiar with his plans, the president even thought of hanging a chandelier in the oval room, although this seems unlikely now.
Donald Trump with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in the Oval Room. Behind them are recently placed gold medallions in the fireplace and gold statuettes [prata dourada] the child. Nest/AFP/Getty Images
All this makes the White House increasingly resemble Trump’s house. Trump’s plans are expected to begin work on weeks to renew the Rose Garden, paving the grass and turning it into a courtyard-style area, very similar to the area where you make the sea-lag receptions. The president personally analyzed plans for the Rose Garden recently with the White House curators.
Trump has been discussing his vision to the outer space, originally conceived by the first lady Ellen Wilson, with the heads of state who visit him as they walk along the southern portico, according to a visiting delegation.
On the southern lawn, the president hopes to build a new ballroom to host state dinners, inspired by Mar-a-lag, which, in turn, was inspired by the Versailles Mirror Hall. Since his inauguration, the president has analyzed several projects, showing them to visitors and making changes to the drawings. Trump has long said that he will be to pay the construction himself – he even offered himself to build it during the Obama administration – but it is not yet clear if the project will advance in the historical ground.
“It keeps my real estate energy flowing,” Trump told The Spectator recently about possible renewals. “But it will be beautiful.”
Trump speaks in his Mar-Lago Library on March 4, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. ALON SKUY/GETTY IMAGES
All of this contributes to a working space very much to Trump’s style, with the president surrounded by many more objects, curiosities and art than the men who preceded him in office. Never known for a minimalist aesthetics, Trump seems to feel more comfortable among all things: trophies, art, papers, memories.
Trump has long seen his cabinet as a place of exposure as a workplace. For decades, his suite on the 26th floor of Trump Tower in New York was full of collection objects on the window railing and on the tables, with framed photographs and magazine covers on the walls. The oval room, in particular its secretary, is much more ordered, but still remembers where it made its fame.
All added to the Oval Room – regardless of whether they are large or small – are made under their direction, their advisors say, as he seeks to redo space as he understands.
The oval room is the predominant power center of any administration, but since Trump returned two months ago the room has become one of the most visible in the White House. It uses it to talk to foreign visitors on a visit, including the remarkably hostile session with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as a place to give office to the office secretaries and as a backdrop for their almost daily questions and answers with journalists.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Trump, sitting behind his secretary, resolute desk [mesa do século XIX que foi um presente da rainha Vitória para o presidente Rutherford B. Hayes em 1880 e foi concebida com partes da fragata britânica HMS Resolute]on the day of the inauguration, when they asked him what was the feeling of returning to the oval room. “One of the best sensations I’ve ever had.”
Trump arrives normally in the morning, after taking the phone at 06:00, calling different advisers or allies to discuss what he just saw on television, what he read in the newspaper or the various plans for the day. Your team knows you should wait for it in the presidential wing around 10 or 11 in the morning.
The space that arrives today has the appearance of a full exhibition gallery. Although he immediately knew some of the portraits he wanted to hang, Trump also analyzed catalogs and more catalogs of potential portraits of the national collection to hang in the oval room, flipping through pages to decide the portraits of his predecessors who would like to adorn the cabinet walls that all occupied.
After selecting the men you want on the wall, pass to the frames. As with the decoration of his other properties, Trump usually prefers darker frames. In total, he hung about 20 paintings in the oval room, all of predecessors or statesmen who worship or who is inspired by. Joe Biden, by comparison, had six portraits on the walls – much more than Barack Obama, who hung two portraits of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, but gave the remaining wall space to modern paintings, including two Edward Hoppers borrowed by the Whitney Museum.
In this photograph of November 13, 2024, President Joe Biden received president -elect Donald Trump in the Oval Room. Alex Wong/Getty Images
A large Ronald Reagan oil portrait now occupies a prominent place to Trump’s left when he sits to the secretary. Across the room, a new image of George Washington is hung over the fireplace: it is no longer the small painting there when Trump arrived in January, but an imposing portrait of Charles Willson Peale from 1776, which shows the first president with a sword.
Almost all square centimeters of the wall were covered with founding parents or old presidents; In some places, the frames almost touch as they compete for space. The gallery wall now includes Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and James Polk – loaned by the capitol – all looking at the case in the case.
Pictures of Presidents George Washington and Andrew Jackson seen in the oval room in February. Anna MoneyMaker/Getty Images
Although many presidents have considered the White House a confined bubble, Trump often exalts the beauty and greatness of the executive mansion, in particular of the oval room. Some presidents held work meetings at Roosevelt or Cabinet Rooms, but Trump spends most of his day in the oval room and adjacent small rooms, including a dining room.
So far, all the changes in this term have centered on decoration. But during his first term, Trump presided over an extensive renewal of the oval room and other presidential wing rooms. The renewals, worth $ 1.75 million, were completed during their summer holidays.
“We found gold behind the walls, which I always knew. The renewals are great, ”Trump told Time magazine at the time. “Do you remember how they worked hard? They wanted to make me happy. ”
Even when the mark of two months of his return to power approaches, Trump continues to add new decoration pieces or memories to the oval room. Some are rotating. Others seem to be on permanent exposure.
At the table behind his secretary is a brilliant and brilliant replica of the Football World Championship trophy, known as the Jules Rimet trophy. Trump often talks about the next World Cup, which will take place in July 2026 in North America, with most games to be played in the US.
Photography by President Donald Trump and his father, Fred Trump, along with a replica of the Football World Championship trophy, at a table behind the president’s secretary, Resolution Desk. AL DRAGO/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES
White House Assistant Office, Dan Scavino, who is one of the president’s oldest advisers, publishes occasional updates made by Trump.
“All presidents have the right to decorate the Oval Hall,” a former White House responsible who worked on Democratic and Republican administrations told CNN. “But his decoration is so strangely not presidential that it is more like that of a king.”
Trump removed some of the most iconic characteristics in the room, including the Swedish ivy tufts that used to stay over the fireplace. Plants are descendants of piles originally offered to John F. Kennedy by the Irish ambassador in the US. About the fireplace are now seven gold artifacts, willing to row a high center of the Empire style table.
The simple wooden support tables were replaced by more showy consoles with marble top, with gold eagles at the base to hold Martin Luther King Jr. Bronze Busts base and Winston Churchill.
A table behind Trump’s secretary is covered by photographs, including that of his mother. THE resolute desk It was sent to be renewed last month. A smaller secretary temporarily occupied his place.
Beside her, a poster showing the water mass named “Gulf of America” is permanently on a easel. Gold cups are placed in niches over the windows and along the wall.
A golden pisa on the table in front of Trump. Mandel ngan/AFP/Getty Images
A heavy-appearance gold papais is positioned on the coffee table, with the presidential seal recorded at the top and the word “Trump” printed on the side. Sometimes some guests have used it as a base for glasses.
And it is possible that there is more. The president spends most of the weekends in Mar-lag and often returns aboard the Air Force One with a new piece for the oval room or another place of honor in the White House.