Trump wants his golden Oval Office to stay. He’s declaring it a national monument

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told theGrio that Trump is more concerned with preserving his golden Oval Office than addressing his party’s midterm losses, adding, “I hope [he] enjoys a stupid ballroom and his gold Oval Office for the next two years.”

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation designating the Oval Office and Cabinet Room federal landmarks in an attempt to prevent future changes to the historic White House spaces he has redesigned while in office.

“We’re making it a national monument and it will not be allowed to be touched by anybody,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.

The presidential proclamation comes just two days after Trump’s Republican Party suffered major defeats in races for Congress, governor and state legislative seats. On Wednesday, Trump held a press conference on the construction site of his $600 million White House ballroom to tout its progress.

On Thursday, Trump defended his many renovations to the Oval Office–which is heavily adorned in decorative gold–and other parts of the White House, which have elicited criticisms from Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, who recently joked that the Trump White House looked like “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”

Trump, who often brings up Obama and frequently insults him, took a dig at America’s first Black president as he announced his new proclamation to preserve his “fixing” of the White House.

“Obama doesn’t know about dirt and filth, and he doesn’t know about cracked stone, and he doesn’t know about broken windows. He’s probably fine with them, but I’m not,” said Trump. The 47th president of the United States justified his renovations, telling reporters, “I view the White House as a very important symbol of our country, and we can’t have broken windows. We can’t have broken stone.”

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, told theGrio that the president has turned the Oval Office into “something gaudy.” When asked if he were president would he tear down Trump’s golden renovations, Beshear said, “Oh, that gold needs to be stripped from the Oval Office.”

The governor and chair of the Democratic Governors Association continued, “Trump is more concerned with keeping the Oval Office looking like it does now than the fact that he just suffered historic losses. That the American people said…’We don’t want any more of you.'”

Beshear added, “I hope he enjoys his stupid ballroom and his gold Oval Office for the next two years because Republicans aren’t going to fill either of them come November of 2028.”