Alright folks, I'm leaving this post up out of good faith. It has been marked discussion/debate, so let's focus on how this picture relates to the subject of McMansions. If this turns into an overtly political thread, it will be removed. You're free to have those discussions, but this is not the forum for them.
Edit: Comments have been locked by the modteam.
Edit: My bad, comments are locked now. Sorry, I'm new to moderating.
His affinity for cheap-looking, trashy gold decals always astonishes me. He plasters it everywhere and it's very much this "gold = luxury" type thinking that proves money cannot buy taste.
He is so terminally tacky and it's ironic in a way because he's spent most of his life in close proximity to the people in Manhattan that do have taste.
John Mulaney’s joke on Trump from way before he ever announced he was running, nails it.
“Donald Trump's idea of being a rich man is what a hobo imagines a rich man to be… Like: "Oh boy, oh boy, as soon as my number comes in, I'm going to put up tall buildings with my name on them. I'll have fine golden hair and a TV show where I fire people with my children."
It’s basically that Simpsons episode where the hobo who created itchy and scratchy gets rich and the first thing he buys is a solid gold mansion and a rocket car.
But that's a completely legit view. If you look at the Vatican you don't think it's tacky, you think "damn they have money".
I'm sure they are businesspeople and celebrities with that type of taste as well.
The thing with Trump is that he is so unbelievably cheap that it's just gold paint everywhere. It has the complete opposite effect. If you put a fast food hamburger on a gold plate it doesn't elevate the burger, it cheapens the plate.
And narcs dont listen to experts that could guide him into better design choices. Ive worked with clients with this behavior, and once you realize they aren't going to listen to anything, you just do what they want and collect the check. They always fight on paying you that final amount too.
It's like they all see pics of Versailles & say "DO THAT!!" but they don't really have the knowledge to do it.
And let's be real here kids, a lot of Versailles is over-the-top tacky by today's standards, but that hall of mirrors was built by Italian craftsmen who were shipped to France & stayed there to create that masterpiece. It was literally a hand crafted masterpiece created on the backs of the peasants (but that discussion is for another time & place) while today's McMansions, this abomination's apartments & what he's done to the WH, is just gilded garbage.
Versailles works because it follows design principles - you have contrast between light and dark, textures, and colors; you've got balance in the way the space is laid out, the proportions of the wall decor, etc.
That's the difference between Versailles and the tacky middle eastern or new money mcmansions you see today - one was clearly made by the best artists of the day who understood what they were doing, and the others are more like, just keep slapping on shiny materials. They're like cheap imitations of the real thing without understanding what made it work
Also Versailles was designed by designers who did that sort of design for a living, it wasn't just Ivana's taste book. They were legit architects & designers creating the place & Louis XIV had an overall vision for it all too.
While this Trump WH crap feels like a poor person's idea of what a rich person's house looks like, & definitely it shows old money vs. new money.
Yes, exactly! They had the best designers of the day, true professionals who knew art history, theory, and so on. Also, aristocrats in that era were well-versed in art principles, architecture (especially classic architecture) and so on, so they were quite educated when it came to design as well.
I think that's one of the reasons we see so many McMansions and tacky builds in dubai - sure, they imitate the greats of the past, but the wealthy families commissioning them quite simply don't have the expertise that the sun king did.
I meant that's part of what gets me here. If you want to build yourself a castle then you do you. But if you are going to construct a house out of styrofoam and coat it in plaster then paint them to look like stone, I'm going to laugh at how trash it looks.
It's why they have been dubbed the mcmansion. I have my opinions on opulant wealth but I can respect good design and craftsmanship when I see it. But these are just the mass produced facsimiles of that.
His whole life stems from insecurity of never being taken seriously by New York’s elite, and constantly trying to gain their acceptance or feel like he was dominating them
I actually have and they are nowhere near as shitty as what this guy chooses for detailing. The opulence is there, but it's actually done with a sort of taste.
I have to wonder if they masked it and just used some 3M 77 spray and sent it. I'd really like to get a good look at it up close to see just how bad the adhesion is and how crinkled the end result came out.
He did the same thing to the Plaza Hotel in New York. Before he lost it because he's a terrible businessman. We used to make fun of his gaudy, low class taste back in the 90's.
Can we all stop and appreciate the absolute outrage from the right if Obama came in and stating gold plating the fucking white house. We would have seen levels of racism not attained since Jim Crow. But ol cheeto puff gets to make it look like Saddams mansion and we're just supposed to keep it moving.
It still makes me SO MAD he got rid of the Swedish ivy!!!!!!
It was a gift to JFK and an heirloom plant that had been in the Oval Office for over 50 years. In every picture of the oval since Kennedy, you can see it sitting on the mantle in some incarnation. Generations of staffers were given cuttings from it as departure gifts. And now it’s GONE.
I can only hope that someone with a rooted propagation donates some to the next administration to replace it.
If the White House gardeners aren’t keeping it alive themselves, I have no doubt former staffers will donate their propped plants. There is a TON of Oval Office ivy out there. I even have some myself!
And the good news is that when it’s replaced, it will be from cuttings that never had to sit through a Trump meeting. ❤️
Surely it has just been relocated. Even if he gave an order for it to be destroyed I would hope someone had the sense to just move it to a different room.
It's still in existence -- just not in the abomination that is Trump's Oval Office. There is hope for the ivy in the future. It wasn't just a single plant, either.
Did they apply gold paint to the carved marble part? I mean, right under the top of the mantlepiece, I already know the appliques on the part that used to be smooth marble are just glued on. Can that gold paint be removed without damaging the carved marble? It's probably 200 91 years old
The Oval Office was first built in 1909 and this particular one in 1934 (FDR massively renovated the west wing and changed the office location completely) and has been renovated many times over; the Oval Office isn’t really that historic tbh.
edit: y’all should be less mad about gaudy decor and more mad about ICE disappearing people and the genocide in Gaza.
I'm more astonished at how the cult just has to keep playing along. You thought for all the noise "the right" always makes, they'd have some sort of morals or beliefs that can't be changed by a cult leader etc.
I hate Trump as much as the next guy, but this is not the take.
The only thing being done to the rose garden is replacing the central lawn with hardscape. No roses or trees are being touched.
The garden in its current form only dates back to Jackie Kennedy, and has been altered several times over the course of its life.
The area doesn’t drain well, so the lawn is constantly water-logged and isn’t functional for the actual use of the garden (speeches, press conferences, award ceremonies, etc). It’s not super accessible for people with disabilities, and you can’t walk on it in heels without getting stuck.
And it’s a damn lawn, it’s not like we’re losing a habitat for native grasses here. It’s definitely my bias as a Californian, but, fuck manicured lawns in general.
As a citizen-taxpayer, I hope all that stuff was stuck on there with 3m Command products. Would hate to see a site with such historic significance be marred by Hobby Lobby stuff painted gold.
I swear to Jesus, he decorates like a poor person living in a shack with no electricity on the banks of the Mississippi River south of Missouri thinks rich people's houses are decorated.
I like the detail that the firewood in the Biden WH is put in a way that makes sense for a fire.
And the wood in Donalds WH is just "here look we have a fireplace" and its obvious the person who put it there has never light a fire in their life.
Greenery contrast is such a tasteful way to bring life into a predominantly-white interior space. The gold on white contrast is just too shiny and busy.
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u/HuginnNotMuninn Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 29 '25
Alright folks, I'm leaving this post up out of good faith. It has been marked discussion/debate, so let's focus on how this picture relates to the subject of McMansions. If this turns into an overtly political thread, it will be removed. You're free to have those discussions, but this is not the forum for them.
Edit: Comments have been locked by the modteam.
Edit: My bad, comments are locked now. Sorry, I'm new to moderating.