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.
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.
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.
Countless others have simply complained that the amount of gold looks flat-out ugly.
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.
“Truly Temu level s--t,” he posted of the cherub to his 1.3 million followers on X this week.
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
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.
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
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.
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’
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.
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.
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.
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, 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.
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.
“Congratulations, Mr. President,” Cook said as he handed it over.
Trump added it to his gold collection and said, “Thank you, it’s fantastic.”
