President Donald Trump got some interior design help from a trusted person after returning to the White House in January.
A piece in The Wall Street Journal published on April 16 revealed that the politician, 78, enlisted cabinetmaker John Icart, who has worked on projects at Mar-a-Lago, to add gold finishes throughout the White House.
The newspaper reported that Trump has added multiple gold-colored touches throughout the government building, including golden borders to his and Vice President J.D. Vance’s portraits, gilded carvings for the fireplace mantel, a gold Trump crest in a doorway and gold coasters with his last name on it, among others.
Trump also reportedly brought gold cherubs from his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Donald Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on April 17, 2025 in Washington D.C.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty
Icart is reportedly the person responsible for executing some of the president’s major design choices and was referred to as Trump’s “gold guy” by an adviser, per WSJ.
The Florida resident reportedly traveled to Washington, D.C., with Trump on Air Force One to assist with the decorations. While Icart declined to comment on the article, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the newspaper in an email, “It’s the Golden Office for the Golden Age.”
A gold coaster box on Donald Trump’s coffee table in the Oval Office of the White House.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Trump had another flashy interior design idea in mind for the White House that never came to fruition, according to WSJ.
An administration official told the outlet that the president had the Oval Office examined to see if he could hang a chandelier in the room, but was told it was too heavy for the specific location.
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A fireplace mantle in the Oval Office, pictured on Jan. 31, 2025.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Gettt
In a March interview with Fox New’s Laura Ingraham, Trump opened up about his gold design choices while giving her a tour of the White House.
When Ingraham pointed out the cherubs from his Mar-a-Lago estate, he said, “They’re gold, all gold. It’s angels. They say angels bring good luck and we need a lot of luck in this country with what they’ve done over the last four years.”
The camera then panned to show the flashy gold fixtures throughout the building.
“Throughout the years, people have tried to come up with a gold paint that would look like gold, but they have never been able to do it,” Trump explained of the symbolic color. “They’ve never been able to match gold with gold paint, that’s why it’s gold.”
Gold decorations in the Oval Office, as seen during Dr. Oz’s April 18 swearing-in as the CMS administrator.
Andrew Harnik/Getty
Trump made another big interior design change in the White House earlier this month. The White House swapped the official portrait of former President Barack Obama for a painting based on a photograph of Trump after the July 2024 assassination attempt.
Obama’s portrait was then moved to where President George W. Bush’s painting hung, and Bush’s was moved to a different area in the White House.
The shuffling of official portraits broke the White House tradition of prominently displaying the two most recent presidential portraits in the Grand Foyer, near the entrance of the executive mansion, for viewing purposes.
Since Trump and Joe Biden’s portraits are not yet complete, the two most recent presidential portraits on display were of Obama and Bush.
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