Add source Login
Look What Donald Trump Has Done To The Oval Office

Look What Donald Trump Has Done To The Oval Office

A mirror image of President Joe Biden's Oval Office, left, and President Donald Trump's version, right. 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 endeavoured 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. President Joe Biden hung a portrait of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt directly above the fireplace, with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other notable presidents flanking him. President Donald Trump's fireplace is a study in maximalism centered around a painting of Washington in his military attire. 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.” President Barack Obama's Oval Office featured earthy tones and, around the holiday season, a festive garland above the fireplace. (He regularly had the ivy plant there.) In this image of Trump's Oval, he had not yet gilded the doorframe nor the space beside the grandfather clock. When first lady Jacqueline Kennedy renovated the White House in the early 1960s, she did so with an eye to the nation’s past. She collected furniture from the era of President James Monroe, who had ordered a large number of pieces from France after the White House was destroyed by a fire in 1814. Many of those were then sold at auction in 1860; Kennedy succeeded in reintroducing several to their original home. She also established the White House Historical Association, the nonpartisan organization that works to preserve the property and document its history to this day. It was Kennedy who dusted off the Resolute Desk and placed it in the Oval Office. Trump hand-picked the paintings now hanging en masse in the Oval from the same White House archives Kennedy worked to preserve. But his renovations appear less evocative of the nation’s past than of the grand future he claims to herald. And that’s not a great sign for American democracy. White House staff apparently had to get creative with some of the items Trump wanted hung around the fireplace, as they blocked hidden doors built into the room. “He’s turning the People’s House into the People’s Palace,” author Kate Andersen Brower told HuffPost. “I mean, it’s an imperial presidency.” Andersen Brower has written several books about the White House and the American presidency that led her to speak with a variety of White House employees, such as curators and housekeepers, who tend to treat the place like a museum. She said some past employees are “aghast” at the changes Trump has made. “Every president puts their own stamp on the Oval Office, but this is an extreme version of that,” Andersen Brower said. “He’s remaking the Oval Office — and the rest of the White House, frankly — in his image.” University of Virginia professor Barbara A Perry, who co-chairs the presidential oral history program at the school’s Miller Center, told HuffPost that Trump’s heavy use of gold has to do with his “image of power.” He’s turning the People’s House into the People’s Palace. I mean, it’s an imperial presidency. Kate Andersen Brower, author Perry noted that Kennedy sought to create a more beautiful White House in part to impress visiting dignitaries who might have also dined at the Kremlin, the opulent seat of America’s Cold War ideological nemesis, the Soviet Union. The first lady was concerned with the perception that visitors would have of America by touring the White House. “She wanted to treat them in a beautiful way, but not in a way that was royal. That was not her goal. That was not President Kennedy’s goal,” Perry said. “It was to have a beautiful icon of the United States and to represent democracy.” Trump’s idea of “impressiveness,” Perry said, is different. “It’s royal,” she said. At top, five presidents stand in the Oval Office as Barack Obama begins his first term. At bottom, Trump hosts reporters for a signing ceremony. A large portrait of Ronald Reagan hangs on one side of the windows; on the other side is a copy of the Declaration of Independence with its own set of curtains to protect it from the destructive properties of sunlight. Whereas Kennedy aimed to invite the American public into the White House, famously hosting a televised tour during her time there, Trump’s aggressively maximalist approach sends a different message. “This is more about keeping people at arm’s length,” Andersen Brower said. The White House has faced its share of critics who come away with an impression of shabbiness. The building and its various rooms sometimes feel smaller in real life than they appear in photographs and movies. It has also seen certain changes over the last century that were not instant hits, such as when President Harry Truman added a balcony in the 1950s that was, at the time, controversial. (Truman also subjected the White House to a much-needed gut renovation that — while shocking to see — replaced shaky wooden beams with steel to give the place a new lease on life.) The seal of the president that adorns the ceiling — previously all-white — has not been spared from gilding in Trump's second term. When cameras are present, Trump occasionally touts the changes he has made so far, calling the White House “a whole different building” under his stewardship earlier this month. He claims no taxpayer funds are being used for the gilding and that he chose the best material for it — 24-carat gold. He may have taken at least one notable shortcut. Online sleuths have found that at least some of his curlicue moldings match an item for sale at Home Depot for $58, made in Taiwan from polyurethane. Other items on the manufacturer’s website appear similar, although not identical, to moldings installed recently in the Oval Office. Critics also allege that Trump is simply using gold spray paint, given the seemingly artificial brightness of the gilded accents. Washington Post architecture critic Philip Kennicott explained , though, that such high sheen can be the product of using a water-based, rather than oil-based, gilding technique . The gold leaf can be polished brightly afterward. (Kennicott notes that the French prefer a less-burnished finish, whereas the Russians like it extra shiny.) The gold molding that flanks both the copy of the Declaration of Independence and the door appears to be available at Home Depot via the retailer's website. The president appears to have studied the issue, devoting several minutes of a July Cabinet meeting to lamenting that “they’ve never found a paint that looks like gold” even though “they’ve tried for years and years,” requiring him to use the real stuff. For Andersen Brower, it’s the permanent changes, such as the ballroom, that concern her more than the gilding in the Oval Office, which she sees as relatively easy to change once Trump’s term is done. The staff, she pointed out, is well-practiced in transforming the Oval Office in the late January hours between one president’s departure and the next president’s arrival. “As ridiculous as it looks, people should know that that can be switched out very, very quickly, and it always is,” she said. “You see the way this is looking? Look. Nice. I can’t tell you how much that gold costs. A lot of money,” Trump told reporters earlier this month, gesturing around his office. Related... JD Vance Says If, 'God Forbid,' Something Happens To Trump, He's Well-Prepared To Be President Trump Makes Rare Admission About Recent Russia-Ukraine Talks With Putin European Leader Shares A Very Alarming Take On What Trump Really Means To Russia

Weight loss drugs can halve heart patients’ risk of early death, study finds

Weight loss drugs can halve heart patients’ risk of early death, study finds

GLP-1 agonists could be given to millions with heart conditions to help them stay out of hospital and live longer Weight loss drugs can reduce by half the risk of heart patients being hospitalised or dying early, according to the largest study of its kind. The class of drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, have been found to offer “dramatic benefits” to heart patients, significantly cutting their risk of falling seriously ill or dying prematurely from any cause. Continue reading...