Overview
- On the Pivot podcast, Hillary Clinton said President Trump’s heavy use of gold and lavish decor in the Oval Office is “tackied up” and “reminiscent” of Saddam Hussein’s palaces, and she joked about being a post‑Trump “Secretary of Taking Down the Gold.”
- The White House pushed back through spokesman Davis Ingle, who replied by invoking Clinton’s 2016 loss, while press secretary Karoline Leavitt has confirmed the president wrote partisan plaques installed along the Rose Garden colonnade.
- Since returning to the White House in 2025, the president has added gold detailing inside the Oval Office and West Wing and pursued high‑profile projects that critics say change public space, including demolition of the East Wing for a proposed ballroom.
- Critics, including Clinton, argue the renovations show personal branding and have proceeded without normal public processes, pointing to contested work on the Rose Garden plaques, the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool resurfacing and a proposed Potomac arch.
- The dispute could shape near‑term fights over historic‑preservation rules, possible legal challenges to the East Wing project, and decisions by the next administration about whether to reverse or keep the changes.