Donald Trump has left an indelible mark on the world.
From upending world trade to wading into global conflicts with his signature hard-ball style, there isn’t a corner of the globe that hasn’t been changed by the 47th president.
Nowhere is that more apparent than his own centre of power: the Oval Office.
The modern Oval Office has been the primary working office for every American president since Franklin Roosevelt, who in 1933 renovated the entire West Wing building to accommodate his disability.
Every president has, of course, put their own spin on the room. But as a former property developer and hotelier, Trump has taken inspiration from his own portfolio and painted every decoration a bright gold colour.
The so-called ‘goldening’ is a marked departure from the more muted choices of previous incumbents of the office.
Trump is said to have been inspired by the world-famous Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, having bragged in years gone by that the ballroom in his Florida home was modelled on the former home of King Louis XIV.
Gold trimming adorns the ceiling, door frames and fireplace. Cherubim sculptures, painted gold, hang inside the door frames.
And a huge number of golden vases and trophies, including the Fifa Club World Cup trophy, sit on surfaces across the room.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump participate in a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 18, 2025
Trump has even got golden coasters with his own name on them in the room
Gold colored decorations are seen as US President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Store in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 24, 202
Paintings and gold trim are visible behind reporters as US President Donald Trump holds a swearing in ceremony for interim US Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro in the Oval Office of the White House on May 28, 2025
Trump has even got golden coasters with his own name on them in the room. To top it all off, the presidential seal on the ceiling of the Oval Office, ordinarily left as a white relief, was covered in gold.
A White House spokesperson told Fox that the gold, which is ‘of the highest quality’, was all paid for by Trump.
The president also has far more gold-gilded paintings than any previous president. On the wall hang nearly 20 portraits of Americans leaders.
This stands in contrast to the Oval Office’s previous incumbent, Joe Biden, who had just six presidential paintings on the wall.
Barack Obama had even fewer, with just two ex-leaders hanging on the wall.
Much of the decoration was reportedly done by Trump’s ‘gold guy’, 70-year-old Floridian cabinet maker John Icart.
Icart is said to have been flown into Washington on Air Force One, carrying flourishes from Mar-a-Lago.
Though White House press secretary described Trump’s iteration of the famous room as a ‘golden office for a golden age’, many have been more critical of its gaudiness.
Gianni Infantino, president of the Federation International Football Association (FIFA), right, and US President Donald Trump look at the FIFA Club World Cup trophy during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, March 7, 2025
A painting of former President Andrew Jackson is visible behind President Donald Trump as he speaks during a swearing in ceremony for Robert Wilkie as Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs in the Oval Office of the White House, July 30, 2018, in Washington
The presidential seal and the circle of stars that surrounding it on the ceiling of the US President Donald Trump’s Oval Office are now painted gold at the White House on July 22, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung at the Oval Office, at the White House, in Washington, D.C., US, August 25, 20
Jack White, of the White Stripes, compared Trump’s Oval Office to a wrestler’s dressing room.
It’s not just the Oval Office that has undergone a major transformation under Trump.
The Rose Garden, once famed for its large grassy area, was entirely paved over this year with concrete and stone tiles.
Trump told Fox News in March: ‘The grass just doesn’t work’.
And the president is set to transform the White House even more in the coming years, announcing in June a massive 90,000 square foot ballroom that will set the taxpayer back $200million.
‘In the first term, I said, you know, if I get another shot at this I’m going to do a ballroom,’ Trump said. ‘I was pretty busy in the first because I was running the country and I was also fighting for survival with all the lunatics I had to beat.’
Leavitt said the new ballroom would sit in the current East Wing of the White House, explaining that the building would be ‘modernized’ when asked if portions of the East Wing, originally constructed in 1902, would be torn down.
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