Donald Trump has issued a proclamation designating the Oval Office and Cabinet Room as national monuments.
After making some major renovations during his second term, the President has now signed the order in a bid to preserve them.
‘It won’t be able to be taken down, destroyed, touched or anything else. It’s actually called a national monument,’ he said.
‘It’s a federal landmark. When completed … it’ll make it impossible for anybody ever to destroy this incredible space.’
Trump has already placed gold-gilded accents in the Oval Office, including new, heavy gold font signs similar to those in Mar-a-Lago.
Plans for his ornate ballroom, for which he destroyed the historic East Wing of the White House, are underway.
And this spring, the Trump-appointed head of the federal arts commission proposed replacing the four front columns of the White House with the Corinthian style, which is on the US Capitol and Supreme Court buildings.
Rodney Mims Cook Jr. said: ‘Corinthian is the highest order [of column], and that’s what our other two branches of government have.
‘Why the White House didn’t originally use them, at least on the north front, which is considered the front door, is beyond me.’
Classical architecture Professor Steven Semes, of the University of Notre Dame, said new columns would be ‘inappropriate’.
He told the Washington Post that the Ionic columns evoke ‘dignity, grace and domesticity’ – whereas Corinthian columns are used to express ‘formality and monumentality’.
Long known as the People’s House, changing the White House’s interior and exterior after 200 years has angered Americans who feel they have no say.
Trump’s love of gilded things has stretched into the White House during his second term, however.
In his apartment in Trump Tower, gold Corinthian columns stretch from floor to ceiling.
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