Trump gloats over the gold trim in the Oval Office. Dork!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

23. The tackification of the Oval Office

The Washington Post actually has an article on the tackification of the Oval Office

Curious about the tackification of the Oval Office, I skimmed the official White House photo feed. As it turns out, the gold elements in the room were added slowly, not all at once. Photos in my (free to read) newsletter.
s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?tra...

— Philip Bump (@pbump.com) 2025-05-05T15:21:40.072Z

Link to tweet

https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/

As I was writing it, I realized that a companion piece might be warranted. Among the less-important ways in which Trump is subverting tradition is his gaudy overhaul of the seat of American power: the Oval Office itself.

Consider this image, for example, showing Trump meeting with staff including his soon-to-be-former national security adviser Michael Waltz. It was taken on April 30, the day before Waltz’s ouster. Gold trim and appliqués are ubiquitous.


That photo prompted two questions. First, how different was it from the Oval Office during the Biden administration? Second, when did the change occur? My search for answers led me to official photos posted to the sharing site Flickr (remember Flickr?), where I learned that the answers to those questions were “very” and “slowly.”

Let’s start with the photo below, which shows President Joe Biden welcoming Brittney Griner’s wife to the Oval Office in 2022. Notice the doorway and bookshelves on the back wall. Neither has any visible gold.

....By early February, little splashes of gold started to appear. In the nooks above the bookshelves, gold vases were put on display. Some sort of gold figurine was placed above the door’s transom.


By late March, Trump was settling in. The pictures near Ronald Reagan’s portrait had changed. A portrait of Andrew Jackson and its brownish frame had been swapped out for a gilded one — and another portrait with a thick gold frame was crammed into a formerly empty space.