More Gilt in the Oval Office

Last year Boston 1775 passed on the news stories about President Donald Trump demanding that the Declaration of Independence be brought to his office, and about his inability to explain what it says.

Earlier this month, Trump posted this photo of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani posing beside the copy of the Declaration now hanging in the Oval Office.

I was struck with how the document’s setting had changed from a year ago, as shown in the May 2025 photo here. Its frame is now gilded. A gilt Presidential seal is glued onto the wall below.

What’s more, there are strange golden furbelows on either side of the Declaration, and a table bearing busts of Abraham Lincoln has been moved away to display more golden furbelows.

In the spring of 2025 newspapers noted how Trump was adding more golden decorations to the office, in contrast to his republican predecessors.

That trend has continued. As shown by this image from a recent event, there are now even more and bigger gold loving cups and participation trophies on the mantelpiece—nine in all. And even more golden furbelows and gold-framed pictures over every patch of the walls.

This man is working out a lot of gilt.