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“Designers have drafted options for how to remake the surface of the #RoseGarden, which sits just outside the Oval Office & the Cabinet Room. #Trump has discussed whether it should be limestone or an easily interchangeable hard surface, with the possibility of installing hardwood floors for dancing, according to four people briefed on the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.”

#Trump has also privately revived an idea …to build a ballroom at the WH, “like I have at Mar-a-Lago,” which Trump says would cost $100M. [guess #DOGE is cool w/some govt spending]
Trump has other plans….He wants to hang a grand chandelier from the ceiling of the Oval Office…
He already covered almost every free inch of…space in the Oval w/portraits of presidents, among other images;…just outside the office is the NYPost front page of Trump’s mug shot…
#plutocracy #corruption #kleptocracy #USpol

There are also gold vases & statuettes & at least one gold figurine embedded in an elevated wall molding. The figurine was screwed into the wall by #CarlosDeOliveira, the property manager at Mar-a-Lago [& one of #Trump’s #criminal co-conspirators in the #ClassifiedDocuments case], who traveled to Washington to perform the task, the people said.

Jacqueline Kennedy established the #WhiteHouse #Historical Association, a private advisory entity that created guidelines for changes to the physical building that have generally been adhered to.

“I think that’s one of the greatest accomplishments of any first lady, to put those safeguards in place,” said Katherine Jellison, a professor at Ohio University who has closely followed first ladies.

Timothy Naftali, a historian at Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs, noted that the building’s residential spaces are out of view & presidential families often make changes there. But he said that first families have usually had an understanding “that the #WhiteHouse is a #museum that belongs to the #AmericanPeople” & that “you have an obligation not to step too far outside of tradition in the public spaces.”

The White House Historical Assn has no statutory authority over the… #RoseGarden …because it is outdoors.…

It is the #NationalParkService, which is controlled by the Dept of the Interior, that maintains the grounds, including the Rose Garden.

…remodeling the Rose Garden to take away the grass…would be a jarring change from tradition.

Naftali said that the approach was consistent with #Trump’s ethos as a public figure.

“The whole #Trump approach to leadership is to blow up existing national elites of any kind, whether that elite is defined by taste, or money, or aesthetics,” said Naftali, saying those elites are often called the “uniparty” by Trump’s advisers. “But they mean it for not simply elected officials, but they mean in terms of national aesthetics or national traditions or norms.”

@Crowjane @Nonilex metaphorically, that's all he's done since the Inauguration

@NoctisEqui @Nonilex I think we have to provide the military for that one