Trump’s renovation – A new book describing Donald Trump’s second-term operations says he repeatedly involved himself in White House and personal decor—and that Melania Trump’s preferences didn’t always align with his. From the Rose Garden redesign to the Oval Office’s gold-heavy m
On Independence Day in 2025, Donald Trump walked into a meeting with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson—and then, according to a new book, Melania Trump entered and made her position clear: she wasn’t pleased with the gold in the Oval Office.
The book, chronicling the inner workings of President Donald Trump’s second term, says Trump was taking an unusually hands-on approach to redecorating and that the friction was not occasional. It was built into day-to-day decisions about what would stay, what would move, and what would be replaced.
The account comes from “Regime Change. ” published June 23. in which New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan describe extensive involvement by Trump in redecorating the White House. Haberman and Swan wrote that they conducted over 1. 000 interviews with people close to Donald Trump and also sat for an hourlong interview with the president. where they wrote he “pushed back on a few specific points” but overall did not dispute their findings.
The sharpest dispute in the book centers on Trump’s plan to change Melania Trump’s Rose Garden redesign from his first term. In that earlier redesign. the Rose Garden included a new limestone border around the lawn and roses in white and pastel shades. and the book says Melania Trump considered it “one of her proudest achievements.”.
So the account states she was “very unhappy” when Donald Trump planned to pave over it.
Eventually, the couple reached a compromise: stone tiles would cover the grass, while the rosebushes would be left alone. The new Rose Garden Club—modeled after Mar-a-Lago’s outdoor terrace—was unveiled in August 2025.
But even after the compromise, the book portrays ongoing attempts to remake spaces in Trump’s image. Haberman and Swan wrote that Trump took pieces of White House decor that Melania Trump had curated during his first term and moved them to new locations as part of his own design projects.
One example cited: in March 2026, Trump moved a mirror to the Rose Garden colonnade. The book describes it as “a massive mirror framed in gold leaf” that Melania had made the centerpiece of a redesign of the Queens’ Bedroom during Trump’s first term. In its new placement, it became known as the “selfie” mirror.
The Rose Garden conflict wasn’t an isolated taste battle, either. The book also describes contention over plans for a new White House ballroom. with staffers attempting to manage competing desires about the future of the complex. Haberman and Swan wrote that Melania Trump preferred a quiet environment with minimal disturbances and objected to living in a construction zone. repeatedly expressing concern about the size and location of the ballroom.
In the end, Trump’s vision won out: the East Wing—once home to the Office of the First Lady—was demolished in October 2025 to make way for the ballroom.
Those disagreements appear to have traveled into even the spaces where Trump and Melania were supposed to have control over boundaries. The book recounts that during the redecorating of Trump’s bedroom in the White House residence—where they maintain separate rooms—staff members felt “caught between the two Trumps” in the weeks after the inauguration.
At one point. Haberman and Swan wrote that when staff gently reminded the President he was taking things from the Center Hall his wife had personally selected. he made clear he didn’t care. The account says he seemed “almost to be competing with her. ” and that staff resorted to photographing potential substitutes and sending the images to Mrs. Trump for approval.
Even the Oval Office meeting on Independence Day in 2025 fits the same picture: Trump’s taste, the book says, leaned heavily toward gold. The book quotes Trump telling Johnson, “She’s a minimalist,” and then adds, “But this is the Oval Office. It just looks better.”
The story then moves from taste disagreement to workbench behavior. Haberman and Swan wrote that Trump was not deterred from taking a hands-on approach himself, including using superglue to add more gold decorations to the fireplace mantle.
They wrote that the sight of the President squeezing glue onto gilded appliques and mounting them on the wall surprised no one in his inner circle—because Trump preferred his own aesthetic handiwork to anyone else’s.
The sequence the book lays out is tight: Melania Trump’s earlier design choices become flashpoints. compromises are reached. and then pieces of decor are relocated or replaced as Trump drives decisions forward. It is a portrait of renovation where aesthetics aren’t just style—they determine what gets built. what gets demolished. and who has to live through the mess.
The White House and the Office of First Lady Melania Trump did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Donald Trump Melania Trump White House renovations Rose Garden redesign Oval Office ballroom demolition Regime Change Maggie Haberman Jonathan Swan