HuffPost: Look What Donald Trump Has Done To The Oval Office

Trump has taken an unusually personal interest in redecorating the iconic seat of the American presidency.

In the words of White Stripes singer Jack White, “It’s now a vulgar, gold leafed and gaudy professional wrestler’s dressing room.”

For decades, every president has made the Oval Office his own.

John F. Kennedy specially chose a rug in Harvard crimson, although he did not live to see its installation. Richard Nixon’s office featured a navy rug with gold stars, accented by gold curtains. Jimmy Carter surrounded himself with warmer, more natural shades. George H.W. Bush opted for powder blue as both a floor and window treatment.

The presidents have chosen different sofas, different coffee tables, different books for the shelves, different knick-knacks for the tables and paintings for the walls.

But none have had the aesthetic impact of President Donald Trump.

In his second term, Trump has endeavored to leave a more lasting footprint on the White House by drawing on his long career in real estate development. He paved the Rose Garden’s grassy center, erected two enormous flag poles and revealed plans to build a large ballroom on the East Wing to host events.

Trump’s Oval Office, though, has been the site of the most striking transformation so far.

The iconic space has been positively drenched in gold — curtains, of course, but also vases, frames, trophies, platters and vast amounts of gilding, including shiny curlicued moldings that ensure no part of the wall is left blank. This style is either Rococo or decidedly not Rococo.

An ivy plant that had adorned the Oval Office fireplace for over a half-century was replaced by lifeless objects. (The Washington Post figured out the ivy had been relocated to a greenhouse for safekeeping.)

Trump, it seems, has cast aside norms in decorating just as quickly in his second term as he has cast aside norms in governing. Anyone familiar with Trump Tower in Manhattan or his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida will not be surprised to see the full extent of his changes to the Oval, given his instinct to gild the properties that bear his name.

But that is also why his changes rub some people the wrong way. The White House — the People’s House — is not Trump’s own. First families may make changes to the residence to make it feel more comfortable during their stay, but the Oval Office is not part of a Trump-branded enterprise.

In the words of White Stripes singer Jack White, “It’s now a vulgar, gold leafed and gaudy professional wrestler’s dressing room.”

….

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-oval-office-gold-gilding_n_68910956e4b06ab33893e975

Newsweek: Why do MAGA Republicans hate Europe?

In May 1988, Republican President Ronald Reagan spoke from the Oval Office in an address not targeted at the American people, but the citizens of Western Europe. The president was planning a trip to meet with Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and wanted to make his commitment to Europe clear.

Staring directly at the camera, Reagan said: “Shared [moral] standards and beliefs tie us to Europe today. They are the essence of the community of free nations to which we belong.”

Thirty years later, in July 2018, while sitting for an interview with CBS at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, Republican President Donald Trump was asked to name America’s top global foe. “Well, I think we have a lot of foes,” Trump said. “I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now you wouldn’t think of the European Union, but they’re a foe.”

https://www.newsweek.com/maga-republicans-donald-trump-jd-vance-europe-2071814