Trump moves to make Oval Office a national monument aiming to prevent future major changes
Trump indicated the proclamation would have to be ratified by Congress.
President Donald Trump has made his mark on the White House in many ways -- including the massive ballroom construction project and the numerous gold touches he's added throughout the West Wing.
Fresh off a midterm election defeat, Trump signed a proclamation Thursday aiming to prevent future presidents from making major changes to the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room.
"We've had tremendous victory in this office," Trump said. "So we're making it a national monument, and it will not be allowed to be touched by anybody, destroyed, ripped down by stupid people, in order to build something in a slightly different shape."
The proclamation designates the Oval Office, the outer Oval Office and the Cabinet Room as a national monument, which Trump said will make them "impossible to knock down and change in any meaningful way."
However, the proclamation doesn't prevent future presidents from redecorating and refurnishing the historic office -- nor does it prevent them from rolling back the proclamation itself.
Trump said the interior of the Cabinet Room, which serves as a meeting room for the president and his top advisers, is "pretty much the same" as before, but he also said it has been "substantially upgraded" and that he added new chandeliers.
Trump also said "no major modification" will take place to the Cabinet Room or Oval Office "without the approval of Congress."
The president indicated that the proclamation he signed declaring the rooms national monuments would have to be sent to Congress to be ratified.
"So we're going to be declaring it a national monument, and we're going to send it over to Congress, have it ratified," he said.
Asked by a reporter whether a future president could remove the gold accents that the president has hung in the Oval Office, Trump indicated that a future leader could, but "very carefully."
In October 2025, Trump himself made major structural changes to the White House, tearing down the East Wing with little notice or oversight, as part of the plan to build the White House ballroom.
The proclamation doesn't prevent future presidents from later going against it -- as Trump himself has done with national monument designations made by previous presidents. Trump has dramatically shrunk the size of Utah's Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante, protected by former President Barack Obama, later restored by President Joe Biden, and reversed again by Trump. Earlier this year, Trump similarly revoked a proclamation protecting a marine monument from commercial fishing in the Atlantic.
Trump has continued White House construction, drastically changing its grounds. On Wednesday, speaking publicly for the first time following the GOP's midterm losses, Trump touted the ballroom project as he invited reporters to the construction site to witness the raising of the final beam.
At the Wednesday event, Trump acknowledged the criticism he has received for focusing his attention on the White House projects.
"And you know, when I get criticized, like, 'Why are you working on the White House?' I'm doing it because the White House is the ultimate symbol of America, and it's got to be pristine," Trump said.
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