A viral post offering a side-by-side comparison of the Oval Office under President Donald Trump versus former President Joe Biden has thrown Trump’s obsession with gold accents into sharp focus. AP reporter Michelle Price posted a photo to the social media platform X of Biden’s relatively sober Oval Office: five presidential portraits around the marble fireplace, simple frames, greenery on the mantle, tasteful white crown molding on the ceiling, a bare patch of wall to provide balance. By contrast, a photo from Trump’s meeting Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reveals a maximalist aesthetic that critics quickly dubbed “Russian oligarch style." Gold accents have been added to the fireplace, crown molding and walls, which are stuffed with paintings—most of them new—held in intricately carved frames. Trump also brought in gaudy end tables with gold eagle stands, six golden cups and trophies lining the mantle, and new lamps and coffee tables with gold accents. “Tacky as hell,” one social media user commented. “It looks cheap honestly.” Another wrote, “Russian oligarch décor 101.” On the plus side, a bust of Martin Luther King Jr., which Biden had also displayed, remained mercifully devoid of gold leaf.
