Red VETO cap sat atop Resolute Desk two days after midterm losses
President Trump mocked former President Barack Obama’s knowledge of building upkeep on Thursday. “Obama doesn’t know about dirt…and he doesn’t know about broken windows,” Trump said. “He’s probably fine with them, but I’m not,” he said. “I’m not fine with them.”
The remarks answered Obama, who mocked the White House renovations on the campaign trail, saying the changes look “like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.” Those remarks appear to have irked the president.
Trump spoke as he signed a proclamation that he said would designate the White House’s Oval Office and Cabinet Room as landmarks to prevent future presidents from making major changes to the rooms. “They won’t be able to be taken down, destroyed, touched or anything else,” Trump told reporters. “It’s called, actually, a national monument. It’s a federal landmark, and when completed and when we get the documentation fully done, legally binding, it’ll make it impossible for anybody ever to destroy this incredible space.”
Trump said the proclamation is intended to preserve the space for future generations and suggested that further changes would need to be approved by Congress. He called the Oval Office a “great landmark,” said the Cabinet Room had been “very substantially upgraded” and would become a “federal monument,” and highlighted the installation of new chandeliers in the Cabinet Room.
The announcement came two days after Trump’s party lost control of the Senate and the House in the midterm elections. On his desk in the Oval Office, a new red cap with the word VETO sat atop the historic Resolute Desk. “I view the White House as a very important symbol of our country, and we can’t have broken windows, and we can’t have broken stone,” Trump said.
It is common for presidents to add their own style to the Oval Office, the presidential office in the West Wing, but Trump has taken the practice to a new level, adding gold embellishments to the room from the ceiling to the walls. Since taking office for his second term in January 2025, he has made White House renovations a priority, at times drawing criticism that he is more focused on the projects than on issues Americans care about, such as the cost of living.
The president has highlighted the renovations this week even as he and his party dealt with the midterm losses. On the eve of the election, he delivered a speech focused on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. On Wednesday, his first public remarks were about the White House ballroom.
Trump has knocked down the entire East Wing of the White House to build a massive ballroom for events, which he says was also built for national security. He has taken special interest in fixing broken windows and cracked tile in the building, which is also the workplace for his senior staff.
Beyond the Oval Office and Cabinet Room, Trump has renovated the Palm Room, a reception room in the White House, and added gold lettering to the outside of the Oval Office and in the West Wing. He has installed a wall of presidential portraits, and in place of a picture of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, he has displayed a framed picture of a robotic pen — a reference to Trump’s frequent claim that Biden did not sign his own documents.