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After living and working at the White House for nearly four years and 10 months in total, one might assume President Donald Trump can find his way to his office without getting lost.
Yet his latest addition to the White House complex could indicate that the oldest person ever to serve as president is having a bit of trouble navigating the corridors of power.
As Trump prepared to depart the White House en route to a speech in Miami, Florida, reporters waiting for him noticed an addition to the exterior of the building — a sign in gilded script indicating the entrance to the Oval Office as seen from the White House Rose Garden.
The sign, which appeared to be a temporary placeholder to show where to add the planned lettering, used a cursive font that strongly resembles the typeface used in the logo of his Mar-a-Lago club.
If made permanent, it would be the latest in a series of alterations Trump has made to the White House residence and the West Wing — in addition to his controversial wholesale demolition of the historic East Wing to make way for a planned $300 million ballroom.
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As Trump prepared to depart the White House en route to a speech in Miami, Florida, reporters waiting for him noticed an addition to the exterior of the building — a sign in gilded script indicating the entrance to the Oval Office as seen from the White House Rose Garden. (AFP/Getty)
In the Oval Office, his love for all things gilded has been on full display since he returned to the presidency in January, with nearly ever surface receiving some sort of molding or embellishment painted in what Trump has claimed to be “24-karat gold” leaf.
Outside it, he has transformed the historic rose garden first planted during the Kennedy administration by replacing much of the area with a patio, complete with furniture reminiscent of the one at his Palm Beach, Florida club.
But the addition of a sign denoting the location of the Oval Office, perhaps the most famous single workspace in the world, drew some mockery for the 79-year-old ex-real estate developer, with some commentators suggesting it is an indicator of some sort of memory problem on the president’s part.
Former Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush weighed in on X, writing: “Oh this is very helpful otherwise no one would be able to figure out the oval-shaped room in the West Wing is actually the Oval Office.”
But a White House spokesperson, Davis Ingle, defended the move as part of Trump’s efforts to improve the aesthetics of the entire White House complex.
“President Trump is making the White House beautiful and giving it the glory it deserves,” he said.
