Trump signs order making Oval Office and Cabinet Room national monuments

A proclamation for the rooms he remade

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Thursday, 5 November 2026, designating the Oval Office and the adjacent Cabinet Room as a national monument and federal landmark. The order is meant to keep future administrations from tearing down or reshaping the gold-accented rooms he redesigned during his second term. Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said future presidents would be barred from changing the office's shape, such as making it square, or making significant modifications without approval from Congress. He said he was also sending a request to Congress to attach the federal designations to the two rooms. Trump described the rooms as the sites of "great victories" and said the Cabinet Room had been "very upgraded and made really beautiful."

Trump framed the order in lofty terms to reporters:

“I'm going to be signing a document which will make them into a landmark for the ages.”

He added that no one should be allowed to take the room down, and that if anyone started knocking down walls, he wanted to be called so he could return and stop it. A future president, he told reporters, could do whatever he wanted with the gold accents as long as he was careful.

Questions over legal force

The Washington Post reported that the legal force of the proclamation was unclear, because future presidents would have the authority to overturn it. The White House already holds the National Historic Landmark designation, but Congress exempted it from the National Historic Preservation Act, which lets presidents rapidly remake parts of the building when they take office. Greg Werkheiser, founding partner of Cultural Heritage Partners, a law firm focused on historical preservation, told the Washington Post in October 2026:

“The discussion of making it a landmark is legally meaningless.”

Werkheiser also questioned why Trump was invoking preservation now, after disregarding such concerns when he tore down the East Wing and paved over the Rose Garden.

Renovations after the midterms

Trump signed the order two days after the midterm elections on Tuesday, 3 November 2026, in which his Republican Party suffered sweeping losses. On Wednesday, 4 November, he visited the White House ballroom construction site to sign the final steel beam, his first public appearance after the vote. The ballroom is being built where the East Wing was demolished, a project the Guardian put at $600m. Spiegel reported that preservationists are challenging the ballroom, although construction may continue for now. Politico described the proclamation as Trump's first executive action since the midterms, and Spiegel reported that he also plans a contested triumphal arch and a redesigned golf course in Washington. The New York Times noted that a Democratic Congress is now set to challenge him.

Criticism and the White House exterior

Former president Barack Obama has also mocked the décor, saying the office looks as if Saddam Hussein had opened a Cheesecake Factory, a reference to the former Iraqi dictator's palaces and the US restaurant chain known for its kitschy decor. Spiegel reported that Obama, during a campaign appearance, suggested Trump should instead appear on a cable channel devoted to home building, interiors and renovation. Trump has pointed to years of deterioration on the exterior, saying he paid for repairs and hired skilled workers to restore cracked windows, damaged stonework and broken decorative features. He has said the building's exterior columns were in poor shape before the work began.