President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation on Thursday declaring the Oval office and the Cabinet Room a national monument to “protect” the spaces from major structural changes by future administration. This includes preventing future presidents from demolishing or substantially changing their designs.
Speaking to the reporters from the Oval Office, Trump said he wanted to ensure that the room would remain intact for future generations. “We’re making it a national monument, and it will not be allowed to be touched by anybody, destroyed, ripped down by stupid people, in order to build something in a slightly different shape,” Trump told reporters.
The proclamation establishes the Oval Office National monument under the Antiquities Act. The federal law allows presidents to designate historic landmarks and structures on federally controlled land as national monuments. It directs the interior Secretary through the National Park Service to oversee the preservation of the rooms and protect their historic character and other features.
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“Every once in a while, they’ll look and they’ll say, oh, maybe what we’ll do is we’ll put some glass up that’s a little bit better or something, and I say no, you’re not going to do anything. We’re going to leave this as it is,” he continued.
However, the proclamation does not completely prevent future president from making changes. It specifically allows the president to redecorate the rooms, select furnishings, or make ordinary operational and security modifications that do not substantially impair the monument’s historic structure or architectural character.
Trump has transformed the Oval Office and the surrounding area at a level that any other modern president never did. His prominent changes include adding gold decorations, gilded frames, lined the walls with framed portraits and even added a sign in gold cursive writing that reads “The Oval Office.” He added a helicopter pad, a newly paved rose garden, destroyed the Old East Wing building to construct a new $600m ballroom. Trump further stated that the changes were crucial as the it was badly damaged with “broken windows, cracked walls and broken stone.”
Trump’s actions also drew criticism from political opponents. Former president Barack Obama mocked trump’s elaborate Oval Office design, comparing its heavy gold appearance as “looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere.”
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One of the users online criticized the President for focusing on protecting the gold wallpaper rather than focusing on issues that Americans face. “Trump is more concerned about protecting his gold wallpaper than protecting Americans from high prices. The same man who tore down the East Wing now wants to lecture America about historic preservation. The hypocrisy is spectacular,” Alex Cole wrote.
Nevertheless, the White House is designated as a National Historic Landmark. Though Presidents can generally make changes to the Oval Office, large projects require the permission of Congress.
During the signing ceremony in the office, a red baseball cap bearing the word “veto” was placed on the Resolute Desk, which has now become a symbol of trump’s dissatisfaction with the midterm election results. He had threatened to veto legislations brought by democrats and posted the photo of the same cap in his Truth Social handle.