Kaitlan Collins' Update On Trump's White House Decor Hints He's Ready For Retirement
Donald Trump is apparently using his presidential victory to do some interior decorating. CNN's Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins took to Instagram to give an update on Trump's design choices, and said that Trump has tripled the number of paintings hanging on the walls in the Oval Office, personally selecting former presidents to adorn the interior, but also at one point "flipped through a catalog of the national collection" to see what else he wanted for his daily inspo. Trump is clearly going with a maximalist philosophy, with Collins noting that "there are so many [paintings], that there's almost no wall space left." Meanwhile, Collins clearly knows how to aesthetically do more with less, judging by her sleek deployment of a little black dress. Though, like Trump, she has been rumored to have some diva behavior in her too ...
But the largest sign that Trump has been redecorating is the uptick of gold in the Oval Office, with Collins citing a mantle full of gold figurines, two golden medallions that have been hung above the fireplace where Trump and world leaders meet, and if that wasn't enough, there are golden eagles placed on the side tables and golden cherubs shipped in from Mar-a-Lago above the doors. Not content to simply redecorate the inside, according to Collins, Trump also wants to pave over the rose garden and instead turn it into a patio, with him attempting to duplicate the outdoor space at, you guessed it — Mar-a-Lago.
Trump still spends lots of time at Mar-a-Lago
With all of Donald Trump's redecoration to make the White House look like Mar-a-Lago (or a tasteless Trump Tower 2.0), it begs the question as to whether he even wants the Oval Office job at all. And in a piece by Lady Victoria Hervey in the Daily Mail, she reported that Trump still spends almost every weekend at his South Beach hideaway. Hervey wrote, "People call Mar-a-Lago the 'southern White House' because the President is here most weekends," adding that, "It's the place where the deals are made and it's no wonder everyone is making a pilgrimage to be here." Hervey, who is a socialite who has ties to multiple members of the Trump family, goes on to describe the familiar gold-everything aesthetic that Trump has brought to the White House, writing, "Mar-a-Lago is gorgeous, of course. The rooms are filled with gold leaf appliqué and marble, antique furniture and artwork."
But users on Instagram reacted differently to Collins' reporting of a far more metallic Oval Office, with one user posting, "That gold is gaudy. Makes it look cheap." Another user offered a more chilling reason for the dramatic overhaul, and a refutation that Trump is retiring anytime soon, posting, "That's because he is never going to move out." And while Trump appears to be cribbing his own style from Mar-a-Lago, others made a more international connection, with some saying he was copying Vladamir Putin, even calling the White House "Moscow 2.0."