Stay Gold, Donny Boy

Art historian and art dealer Bendor Grosvenor posted a thread to BlueSky analyzing Trump's recent redecorating of the Oval Office. I had noticed the gilding of the fireplace directly behind the two chairs that are often used for meetings, but that's not the only change.

He provided photos from multiple times for comparison, and I've added one.

First, the Reagan era:


Note the green plant — a Swedish ivy given to JFK by the Irish ambassador — on the fireplace mantle.

The last days of the Biden presidency. The Swedish ivy, much grown, is still present. The carpet is now blue. Different sofas and chairs, a few more paintings. Probably different wallpaper but similar in effect:



February 2025, not long after Trump's inauguration:


More paintings and mirror added with fancier gold frames, flags with gold eagles finials, and the Swedish ivy is gone, replaced by seven gold vases or trophies. And the fireplace is flanked by gold side tables, and the carpet is lighter… basically also gold.

March 13:


Fake gold decorative flourishes have been added to the front of the fireplace…though the flags are gone. The paintings have been rearranged, though there are still a lot of them.

Last week with the dictator of El Salvador:



Two more fake gold decorative flourishes have been added to the wall on either side above the fireplace, as if there wasn't enough gold up there already, and gold flourishes have been added near the ceiling below the crown molding. 

All of this is in line with Trump's general taste in decorating, but it also fits with the way monarchs "have long used excessive decoration to signal status," as Grosvenor puts it. "Crowns are an obvious example; blingy, lavish items only the richest – and most powerful – person could wear." 

Of course, it's in bad taste in a democracy (or even a republic!) to decorate your place of work as if you were a king, but in the case of Donald Trump it signals his intentions. The fact that most of it is fake, and likely purchased from China, adds to the crassness and makes it more appropriate in an odd sort of way.