Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago style renovations to the White House are progressing fast

Donald Trump’s renovations to the White House, which make it bear a striking resemblance to Mar-a-Lago, are proving to be controversial.

Donald Trump’s renovations to the White House, and changes to its internal decor, have been proceeding quietly but quickly since he became America’s President again in January.

They drew a bit more attention earlier this week, when Mr Trump was spotted wandering around on the roof of the building, apparently checking out the location for a new ballroom. And now photos of the White House’s new, completely overhauled Rose Garden are, as the kids used to say, going viral.

The Rose Garden, which is located just outside the Oval Office and has been a frequent site for presidential press conferences, was first created in the early 1900s and has been redesigned a few times since, most significantly during the presidency of John F. Kennedy in 1961.

Current First Lady Melania Trump had a go at tweaking it during her husband’s first administration, to admittedly quite tepid reviews. This time, the President himself decided to do something more radical, ripping up the garden’s iconic rectangular lawn and replacing it with a stone patio.

Here are the results.

The previous iteration of the Rose Garden, as it looked from above during an event hosted by Donald and Melania Trump back in May. Picture: Evan Vucci/AP

You can see the grass lawn in the background here. Picture: Ruth Fremson/AP

The new version, photographed this week. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP

The grass has been paved over. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

This is a matter of personal taste, of course.

To me, the new version of the garden looks like the perpetually empty patio of a three-star hotel in Bournemouth. Or a parking lot with chairs on it. Or perhaps, if I were to be generous, the eating area outside a relatively up-market Pret a Manger.

Some critics, reacting on social media, have been harsher.

“Dear God. The Rose Garden renovation looks worse than anyone could have ever imagined,” said Chris Jackson, a Democratic strategist.

“He removed a beautiful piece of the White House and replaced it with concrete crap,” said activist Harry Sisson.

I am prepared to acknowledge that some people find what appears, to the eye, to be a flat slab of concrete more appealing than grass. Strange people.

Couple of fun facts about the new design: there are little presidential seals at each corner of the patio’s border, which is otherwise decorated with grey American flags.

And if you thought the outdoor furniture chosen to feature in the garden looked strangely familiar, that is because it’s almost identical to the furniture around the pool at Mr Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago.

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What can I say, the dude loves striped yellow umbrellas. Can’t get enough of them. Picture: Mar-a-Lago’s website

Sadly, Ronald Reagan’s dog Lucky is no longer around to render his judgment on the redesign. Though to be fair, given how often he uses the word ‘dog’ as an insult, Mr Trump probably wouldn’t care about Lucky’s opinion anyway. Picture: Barry Thumma/AP

The White House’s sudden resemblance to Mar-a-Lago does not stop in the garden.

Mr Trump has left his characteristic mark on the White House in other ways, chiefly by absolutely covering its interior in gold.

Gold ornaments, gold drapes, gold picture frames, gold trimming on most available surfaces. Everywhere you turn, the President’s favourite colour gleams back at you.

Here are some before-and-after photos from the Oval Office, which illustrate the change.

The fireplace in November of last year. You can’t quite see a token strip of greenery just above it. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

The same fireplace now. It’s had a literal glow-up, and the greenery has been replaced by various gold ornaments and cups. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP

The wall to Joe Biden’s left as he sat at the Resolute Desk. The curtains, to be fair, he kept in Mr Trump’s favoured colour after taking office in 2021. They were red for most of Barack Obama’s presidency. Picture: Adam Schultz/AFP

The same section of wall this week. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP

The opposite wall features similar adornments. Picture: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

One is reminded vividly of the Bond villain Goldfinger: “This is gold, Mr Bond. All my life I’ve been in love with its colour, its brilliance.”

Or perhaps the character parodying him in the Austin Powers film Goldmember: “You see Mr Powers, I love gooooooooold. The look of it, the taste of it, the smell of it, the texture.”

Mr Trump presumably doesn’t put the gold in his mouth, at least. Just everywhere else.

One more thing: that new ballroom we mentioned at the start. We don’t know how it will end up looking yet, but you could be forgiven for presuming it will resemble the one in Mar-a-Lago, which has hosted so many of Mr Trump’s political events over the last decade.

Mr Trump's ballroom inside Mar-a-Lago. Oh look, more gold!

The ballroom is reportedly set to replace a section of the White House’s East Wing which has previously held the First Lady’s offices.

The project will cost up to $US200 million, drawn from donors’ money, not the public purse.

Add up all the renovations and redesigns and you could justify calling this the most significant overhaul to the White House in decades, one that will leave it stamped with Mr Trump’s personal style long after he leaves office.

“He has a vision to make the White House as exceptional and beautiful as possible for future presidents and administrations,” a spokesperson for the President told US media.

“He is very hands on and involved in all of this.”

Originally published as Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago style renovations to the White House are progressing fast