Trump's Oval Office monument order leaves his authority to redecorate intact

Preservation lawyer calls added Oval Office protection legally meaningless

The executive order designating the White House Oval Office, along with some of its surrounding rooms, a national monument states in its own text that it does not “restrict the President’s authority to redecorate the monument, select furnishings, or make ordinary operational and security modifications that do not substantially impair the monument’s historic structure or architectural character”.

President Donald Trump signed the measure on Thursday. The order also calls on the National Park Service to maintain the office “in a manner that protects its historic character, architectural integrity, and association with the Presidency”. Trump said the designation will prevent future presidents from making certain changes to the space.

“So 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 on Thursday. “We like the Oval Office, and it’s a symbol like the White House itself. It’s a symbol of our country and the greatness of our country,” he said.

The designation adds monument status to a building that is already protected. The entire White House is designated a National Historic Landmark, a status intended to guard against sudden changes to the building, and Congress has carved out an exemption to the National Historic Preservation Act to allow presidents to make needed changes. The current Oval Office has existed since the early 1930s, after its conception by President Franklin D Roosevelt.

Trump’s proclamation acknowledges the existing landmark protection but says “nonetheless, the Oval Office merits specific recognition and protective management as a discrete historic structure of national significance”. US presidents hold the power to create national monuments, which are similar to national parks. Under current rules, American presidents can make some changes to the White House on their own authority, while large projects require the permission of Congress.

Greg Werkheiser, of the law firm Cultural Heritage Partners, which specializes in historic preservation, said temporary alterations such as furniture and decor are “completely up to the president’s discretion”. “As long as they’re not damaging the permanent art and architecture, they can generally do whatever they want,” he told BBC News.

Werkheiser said Trump’s preservation pledge is “legally meaningless” because presidents retain the power to make such changes. He argued the Trump administration has shown extreme disregard for other historic sites in Washington and has attempted, through lawsuits, to undermine the laws that require preservation. “The hypocrisy is that on the one hand he’s talking about the importance of preserving the Oval Office — which is legally meaningless because he can’t do it — and on the other hand he is absolutely taking an axe to the law that allows us to preserve other historic sites,” he said.

Werkheiser pointed to Trump’s efforts to renovate the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, build a new triumphal arch in the city, and paint the granite exterior of the historic executive office building. His firm has filed lawsuits seeking to block two of those projects.

Trump, a former real estate mogul, has altered the president’s official office during his second term, most notably by adding gold features to its walls. He has pursued a large-scale beautification project across Washington and held three events in the past week to boast of the construction, even as his Republican Party lost to Democrats in the midterm elections.

In October, Trump suggested in an interview with Time magazine that the Oval Office would need to be torn down because of security concerns from the US Secret Service. “I said, ‘My ass, you can’t build a new one. This is a special place,’” Trump said at the time.

Democrats criticized the redesigns during the midterm election campaign. Former President Barack Obama said Trump’s golden tweaks had “got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory”.