President Donald Trump is leaning into his taste for bling, and he’s doing it at the worst possible moment, according to critics who watched a looming shutdown collide with another round of Oval Office gilding. As federal workers brace for missed paychecks and shuttered services, the White House has been busy showing off ever more gleaming accents, from coasters stamped with “TRUMP” to ornate moldings that glint under the television lights, a look the president has repeatedly celebrated as “the highest quality.”
A fresh wave of photos and videos touting the makeover spread across social media, drawing jeers about a “24k Oval Office” at the very moment Congress and the White House failed to avert a funding lapse. Tabloids and aggregators piled on, casting the aesthetic as an “overload of gold” and a “waste of money,” even as the administration insists the president personally footed the redecorating bill.
Since returning to the presidency, Trump has overseen an unmistakable “goldening” of the space, swapping in gilded frames, statuettes, trophy-like décor, and those now famous gold coasters, a maximalist break from the cleaner Federal style favored by his predecessors. In late summer, one before-and-after roundup captured just how far the makeover has gone, noting even the crown molding and mantel accents had picked up a metallic sheen.
Trump is now remodeling the Oval Office to cover it in gold after ordering a $200 million golden ballroom.
All after cutting 17 million Americans’ health care and taking food away from hungry children. pic.twitter.com/JtCJMaGzwd
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) August 7, 2025
If you want the Rosetta Stone for the vibe, look at the wall art. In March, Trump unveiled a prominently displayed text of the Declaration of Independence, mounted in a lavish frame and set off like a museum piece, part patriotic flourish, part interior design flex. The president has also boasted that dignitaries “freak out” at the craftsmanship when they step into the room, a claim that landed with his base and infuriated furloughed workers who say they are choosing between rent and groceries.
Just days before appropriations talks collapsed, the Oval Office became a stage for theatrics that had little to do with governing, including those “Trump 2028” caps tossed on the Resolute Desk during a leadership meeting. The spectacle hardened the take from Democrats, who accuse the president of caring more about set dressing than the people missing pay. Republicans argue the décor stories are a distraction, but the shutdown fallout, and the cost of the broader White House revamp, keep the story alive.
There was the report about flying in a Mar-a-Lago craftsman, the so-called “gold guy,” to help execute the look, plus viral sleuthing that pegged at least one gilded applique as the sort of thing you could grab on a big-box hardware run. The White House has dismissed the knockoff chatter and emphasized that private funds covered the project, but that hasn’t blunted the perception that the People’s House now doubles as a palace set.
A Washington Post essay compared the room’s current tone to a modern Versailles, arguing that the aesthetic telegraphs a monarch’s image of power, not a republic’s. It’s a stinging read, and it adds intellectual heft to what furloughed families already feel in their wallets, that the gold is not just shiny, it’s out of touch.
Even if Trump did pay for the makeover himself, the timing is rubbing a lot of Americans the wrong way. A nation staring down closed parks, delayed pay, and frozen services sees a president polishing the trim. Politics is performance, and right now, the audience watching from kitchen tables and picket lines is not clapping, they’re counting the days, and the dollars, while the Oval Office glows.
