President Donald Trump’s real estate bug is back.
And the man who built his empire on real estate is bringing his expertise directly to the White House.
According to White House reports, Trump has plans to reimagine and redesign portions of the White House.
“It keeps my real estate juices flowing,” he told a reporter recently.
Just a couple of weeks after cutting down a deteriorating magnolia tree on the White House grounds, Trump is now taking an interest into redesigning the interior of the sprawling White House.
In the midst of announcing a pause on reciprocal tariffs last week, Trump told the media that he will be taking a personal interest in rearranging presidential portraits in the grand White House entrance hall as one of his first moves.
Trump is in a unique position because he is serving non-consecutive presidential terms.
This means he gets to display two official portraits in the White House and has been contemplating four or five traditional versions in muted tones created by official artists, including one memorable painting in which he looks fierce as he leans on the edge of the Resolute Desk.
In a shocking move, Trump last week said he chose a temporary artistic addition to the grand foyer: a colorful painting of himself after last year’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., with his face bloodied and fist raised.
The viral image represets a moment that will live in history, and one he thinks may have turned the election for him.
The assassination painting will stay in the foyer for two or three months, before a more traditional portrait takes its place.
It replaced a modernistic portrait of Barack Obama, which was moved across the hall to replace one of George W. Bush.
Bush was moved into the stairway that leads up to the private residence, where he now sits alongside his father, a nice touch for the Bush family, who are due to visit the White House for an event in the summer.
Trump has also ordered a huge painting of Abraham Lincoln to be moved out of relative obscurity in the stairway into the cross hall to replace a portrait of Bill Clinton.
Reports indicate that President Trump plans to the White House is to add a gigantic ballroom.
It will be accessed through doors in the East Room, which is currently the biggest room in the house, but which Trump believes is not suitable for large gatherings.
Trump has previously at former President’s Obama and Biden holding state dinners in tents on the South Lawn.
“When a foreign leader comes over … they should not be in a tent,” he has said.
While announcing the new design changes, this isn’t the first move he’s made with the interior the White House since taking office.
Trump has made changing in the Oval Office, where he keeps adding more golden flourishes, most of which he flies in from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.
The gilding of his office began with seven golden urns placed on top of the mantlepiece, replacing ersatz shrubbery left by Biden.
Then he added gold cherubs above the doorways, ornate floral gold leaf appliques to the mantel frieze and walls, gilded Rococo mirrors hanging on the doors and side tables featuring golden eagles at their base. Even the lamps have gold touches, and on the president’s desk is a huge golden trophy from the FIFA World Cup.
He plans next to have gold leaf applied to the cornice moldings, which have been stripped back and painted in preparation.
Trump has also added a historic copy of the Declaration of Independence, which hangs on the wall behind a blue velvet curtain to protect it from the sunshine that floods into the room through French doors.
There is also a big map of the newly named “Gulf of America” standing on an easel behind the president when he sits at his desk.