President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed a proclamation on Thursday (5) that seeks to designate the Oval Office and the adjacent Cabinet Room as national monuments, maintaining focus on his White House renovation projects as the Republican Party tries to recover from the setback suffered in the midterm elections.
In a speech in the Oval Office, Trump said he would send a request to Congress to grant federal designations to executive branch spaces, which he said were the scenes of "great victories."
The announcement reinforced Trump's public concern about the reshuffling of the White House, practically excluding any spontaneous discussion about the election or how he intends to advance his agenda, now that a Democratic Congress must confront him incisively.
On Wednesday (4), in his first public appearance after the crushing electoral defeat for the Democratic Party, he visited the construction site of the White House ballroom.
On Thursday, Trump, who has made significant changes to the appearance of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room, appeared to try to preserve them largely as is under the designation of the Oval Office National Monument.
He said the new designation would prohibit anyone from demolishing the Oval Office, changing its shape or making any other "significant" changes without congressional approval. He was less emphatic about what changes he intended to prevent in the Cabinet Room. But he said it had been "very modernized and it looks really beautiful."
"When everything is completed and we finalize all the documentation, with the force of law, it will be impossible for anyone to destroy this incredible space one day," said the Republican about the rooms.
If Congress takes no action, however, it is unclear how a proclamation signed by one president could not simply be revised by another.
Trump, who said in a recent interview with Time magazine that the Secret Service had suggested that the Oval Office be torn down and rebuilt, did not explain what prompted the proclamation beyond his affinity for the room.
"We like the Oval Office, and it's a symbol, just like the White House itself," Trump said. "It's a symbol of our country and the greatness of our country."
But in his second term, Trump has made it a priority to remodel the Oval Office so that it is a symbol of his presidency and a reflection of his private properties.
He transformed the presidential workspace to reproduce the triumphal style of Louis 14, a theme also present in Mar a Lago, his club in Florida. The cabinet was filled with gold decor, including gold-leaf appliqués that he himself glued to the walls with superglue.
Asked Thursday whether the next president could remove his gold decorations, Trump responded: "He can do whatever he wants as long as he does it carefully."
During a visit to the ballroom construction site on Wednesday, Trump discussed the chandeliers and marble that would soon adorn the space. (The chandeliers were mentioned again during his speech in the Oval Office this Thursday.) He also mentioned his other projects, such as the new helipad on the South Lawn.
Trump's appreciation for preservation did not extend to other parts of the White House, which is already designated a National Historic Landmark. Last fall, Trump demolished the East Wing — after promising not to do so — to make room for construction of his 90,000-square-foot ballroom.
Based on what Trump described Thursday, he was seeking to ensure that his favorite spots in the West Wing didn't suffer the same fate.
“I just thought it was really important that no one could come in here and knock everything down and try to do something, because every now and then someone looks and says, ‘Oh, maybe what we’ll do is put in a little better glass or something,’” he said. “And I say, ‘No, you’re not going to do anything.’”
He added, "And if anyone ever decides to come here and start tearing down walls, you call me, wherever I am, and I'll come back here to make sure that never happens."
