Hours after being sworn in as president of the United States, Donald Trump signalled big changes were coming. In the freshly redecorated Oval Office, he signed his first executive order in front of bright golden curtains.
Changing the drapes isn’t the same thing as changing major legislation, but the Oval Office, constantly photographed as the setting of Trump’s executive orders and phone calls to world leaders, is so weighted with history and power that even small changes to the room draw scrutiny.
Trump himself appears to be fascinated with re-branding the space. The New York Times reported the former mogul “was delighted to page through a book that offered him 17 window covering options” and is “obsessed with the décor” of his new office, asking staff to schedule televised events in the famous room.
What’s going on in the Oval Office? An annotated guide to the some of Trump’s early changes.
Andrew Jackson vs. Norman Rockwell
Days after his inauguration, the New York Times reported Trump chose a portrait of Andrew Jackson, “America’s first populist president, who has been invoked by Mr. Trump’s aides as inspiration — to hang in the Oval Office.” The painting can be seen the backdrop of press conferences.
During his first term as president, Obama had a Normal Rockwell painting where Jackson’s portrait now hangs. Working on the Statue of Liberty, Rockwell’s illustration for a 1946 cover of The Saturday Evening Post, depicts the cleaning of the glass of the torch. Steven Spielberg, who sits on the board of the Norman Rockwell Museum, donated the painting to the White House in 1994 and Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama have each displayed it in the Oval Office.
The painting, which later moved to a space near the fireplace, appeared on the wall behind then president-elect Trump when he first met with Obama in November 2016. Though some have suggested the immigration-themed painting was meant as a rebuke to Trump, the painting is visible in Obama’s meetings with world leaders earlier in the year as well. In a tour of the office with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, the Statue of Liberty picture does not appear to be above the bust of Martin Luther King Jr., as it was when Obama was in office.
Churchill’s head
British Prime Minister Theresa May was the first world leader to meet with President Trump in Washington and there are countless pictures of the pair posing with a bust of Sir Winston Churchill. Trump’s immediate move to return the bust of Churchill to the office was largely boiled down to mean one thing: Goodbye internationalism, hello Anglosphere.
The Associated Press described the artwork as a “thorn in Obama’s side,” and the former president was criticized for removing the bust from the office to make room for one of Martin Luther King Jr. British leaders, such as Boris Johnson, decried the switch. He said the removal was seen by some as a sign of Obama’s “ancestral dislike of the British Empire,” according to the BBC. Obama was dogged by a rumour he sent the sculpture to the British embassy.
How much of a big deal was the bust? The White House addressed the “100% false” rumour in a press release, posting a 2010 photo of Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron inspecting the artwork outside the Treaty Room.
Family mementos
The window table behind the president’s desk features just one framed, black-and-white picture. According to the New York Times, that picture is Frederick Christ Trump, the president’s father and “the only boss Trump ever had in his life,” a figure Trump “still treats with deep reverence.”
It’s still early into the presidency (and office makeover), but the single photo is a contrast to the number of family pictures Obama set out in the same space.
The curtain switch
One of the earliest switches in the Oval Office decor? Curtains. According to an Associated Press story published the day of the inauguration, “it took just a few hours for President Donald Trump to give the Oval Office a makeover, including some fresh gold trim.”
The gold curtains quickly replaced the crimson-coloured window hangings Obama used in his second term and appear to be similar to the ones used by President Bill Clinton during his administration.
Trump has a long-standing love for all things gilded. A profile of his Mar-a-Lago estate drips with gold. In Manhattan, the Trump Tower announces itself in gold block letters and members of his inner circle have been photographed entering the golden elevator doors.
As a former real estate developer, Trump appears to be very interested in the presentation of his new office in D.C. According to the New York Times, “he told a recent visitor were once used by Franklin D. Roosevelt but in fact were patterned for Bill Clinton. For a man who sometimes has trouble concentrating on policy memos, Trump was delighted to page through a book that offered him 17 window covering options.”
The rug
In his Fox interview, Hannity asked Trump why he chose to use President Ronald Reagan’s rug, noting he could design his own. “First of all, I liked it. I like the look, I like the lightness, and I like having it be Reagan’s,” Trump said. “I like Reagan, though I disagree with him on some things, primarily trade.”
The rug associated with the conservative icon replaced the one made for Obama, incorporating famous quotes from Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
A former White House photographer noticed the change, publishing a close up from 2010 of the carpet’s words justice and government. Published on February 7, 2017, the photo has more than 12,000 likes.
September 2010.
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