Trump Does the Near Impossible by Stuffing More Gold into Oval Office
It might not have seemed possible but he did it: The Oval is going even more like Saddam’s palace.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
President Donald Trump’s desire to turn the Oval Office into a lookalike of the Palace of Versailles, Mar-a-Lago, Saddam’s palace, or all three, is showing no signs of slowing down.
Photos taken over the past month show that Trump, 79, has found even more places to add gaudy accents, including gold-plated moldings and designs on the room’s doors, bookcases, and above its fireplace.
Additional gold trim was added above the Oval Office’s fireplace between President Donald Trump’s meeting with the German chancellor in June (left) and his meeting with Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on July 22 (right).
Getty Images
Since January, the historic space has been slowly filled with gold medallions, frames, mirrors, cherubs, eagles, coasters, and moldings—some courtesy of Trump’s personal “gold guy,” who was flown to Washington on Air Force One. (Trump of course is expecting to take delivery of a Qatari Boeing 747 which is distinctly golden already.)
But it’s not just the “gold guy” who has been active. New images show that gold is now incorporated in nearly every feature of the Oval Office.
Donald Trump had added some gold figures to the Oval Office during his first two months as president, as shown in a photo from Feb. 21 (left). However, photos taken this week (right) show that nearly every feature in the historic office is now plated in gold or is adjacent to something that is.
Getty Images
Critics have slammed the dramatic makeover as “old-fashioned and un-American,” likening the blinding amount of bling to European royalty—the very thing the founding fathers of the United States sought to escape.
There is no shortage of gold accents in the Oval Office.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Countless others have simply complained that the amount of gold looks flat-out ugly.
Molding that encircles the Oval Office has been plated with gold.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Derek Guy, a Trump critic who’s known online as the “Menswear Guy,” said that the detailing of a golden cherub, for example, appeared amateurish.
A golden cherub in the White House has been criticized as lacking “crispness.”
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
“Truly Temu level s--t,” he posted of the cherub to his 1.3 million followers on X this week.
Gold flourishes now surrounds a framed edition of the Declaration of Independence in the Oval Office.
The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im
Even the carpet has been gilded: the edges of it are leaves in the color of gold.
Here is how much the Oval Office has changed since Trump returned to office, including his most recent blingification.
Biden’s Oval Office
Former President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump both opted to keep the same gold curtains that the Clinton administration used.
Pool/Getty Images
The Oval Office of 2024 is hardly recognizable compared to the present day. Former President Joe Biden’s office featured more muted, traditional tones, including a rich dark blue rug and cream-colored furniture.
Joe Biden met with Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Nov. 13, 2024. The classic Swedish ivy sitting behind the pair on the mantel, which has long been a fixture of presidential decor, is no more in MAGA 2.0.
The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im
Biden also displayed potted Swedish ivy on the office’s mantel, a presidential tradition that began with John F. Kennedy and remained a fixture of the Oval Office until Trump removed the plant early this term.
MAGA 2.0 begins
Wiles with Dan Scavino, the longtime Trump confidante and official head of the personnel office.
Carlos Barria/REUTERS
Trump wasted no time remaking the Oval Office. On Inauguration Day, he reinstalled his famous “Diet Coke button,” hung a portrait of Former President Andrew Jackson, and set up military flags representing each service branch.
President Donald Trump wasted no time remaking the Oval Office. By the end of his second week, he had replaced the space’s iconic ivy with gold figurines.
The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im
By his second week, he had removed the potted Swedish ivy sitting on the mantel and replaced it with nine gold trophies, the majority of which were made in Europe. The swap brought about headlines like “The Country’s Most Famous Houseplant Is Missing,” from Mother Jones, and “The growing legend of the missing Oval Office ivy,” from The Washington Post. It was only the beginning.
Enter: Trump’s ‘Gold Guy’
John Icart added custom-made gold finishes to the Oval Office in April. He installed a molding that wraps around the office and made gilded carvings for the fireplace mantel, which is often the backdrop for meetings with world leaders. The public’s first look at the additions came during an Oval Office meeting between Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele on April 14.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Chaos was a hallmark of the opening months of Trump’s first term, making it easy to look past the growing changes to the Oval Office’s appearance.
A gold coaster reading “TRUMP" has sat on a coffee table in the Oval Office since March.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
However, by April, the blinding amount of gold was impossible to miss after the president’s “gold guy,” John Icart, who did similar work for Trump at Mar-a-Lago, was flown to Washington from South Florida.
Not even the Oval Office’s doors have survived President Donald Trump’s blingification.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Trump officials told the Wall Street Journal that Icart added gold accents to the Oval Office’s mantel, walls, and to the moldings that wrap around the office. He also delivered the golden cherubs that are now on display.
President Donald Trump and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met in the Oval Office on July 22.
Kent Nishimura/REUTERS
Trump told Fox News in March that the Oval Office “needed a little life,” so he opted for gold. He said the gold is symbolic of angels.
“They say angels bring good luck,” Trump said of his renovation. “And we need a lot of luck in this country with what they have done over the last four years.”
No Gold? You’re Barred
And if that’s not enough, like the child Jesus in the manger, he has been brought gifts of literal gold by men from afar—the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, and the president of soccer’s world governing body, Gianni Infantino—and added them to the Oval.
Infantino brought the 2025 Club World Cup trophy to the Oval Office in March. It has stayed there ever since.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Infantino, the president of FIFA, which governs soccer had brought the 2025 World Club Cup to the Oval Office, then been “persuaded” by Trump to leave it. The trophy, crafted in collaboration with Tiffany & Co, features a central disc with three rotating outer rings. It has a 24-carat gold-plated finish and is thought to have cost around $230,000 to make. Because it remains in the Oval, the body had to make a replica, which was what Trump presented to English soccer team Chelsea in July when they won the competition.
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s gift to President Donald Trump on Thursday was a plaque with a gold base.
The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im
And on Wednesday, it was the turn of Cook, one of the country’s most powerful CEOs, to present tribute in the form of a cross between a statue and a trophy made of glass on, crucially, a 24-karat solid gold base, which he placed on the Resolute Desk.
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“Congratulations, Mr. President,” Cook said as he handed it over.
Trump added it to his gold collection and said, “Thank you, it’s fantastic.”
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