President Donald Trump‘s Oval Office design was criticized on Wednesday after the White House tried to boast about the revamp.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino shared a video this week highlighting the gold touches and a number of model planes across the historic room, The Daily Beast reported.
But the move backfired, with commentators ridiculing the new look.
Rick Wilson, a former GOP operative and co-founder of the anti-Trump organization The Lincoln Project, compared the office to the style musings of two famous, yet very different, people known for flamboyant aesthetics.
“It looks like Liberace and Saddam designed a 19th New Orleans century whorehouse, without the taste and elegance,” Wilson wrote on X, comparing the office look to the late pianist and former Iraqi dictator.
Barbara McQuade, former U.S. Attorney and University of Michigan professor, referred to it as “Dictator chic.”
Jamison Ecklund, a progressive commentator, described it as taking one step too far.
“Somewhere between historic elegance and casino lobby, he took a very wrong turn,” Ecklund wrote.
Trump enemy California Gov. Gavin Newsom took a swipe at the president’s palette — and his administration.
“Gas prices are up 36%. But at least the Oval Office got its tacky gold makeover,” Newsom’s Press Office X account wrote.
7/21/26 | The Oval Office
pic.twitter.com/tjkfiJLRi2 — Dan Scavino (@Scavino47) July 22, 2026
