Kathrine Frich
He was fielding tough questions about his party’s midterm election losses when a reporter brought it up.
Home renovations always bring out strong opinions from the neighbours.
Everyone has a different idea of what looks classy and what goes completely overboard.
When the property in question happens to be the most famous address in America, those interior design arguments quickly turn personal.
A golden clapback
According to the Irish Star, US President Donald Trump used a Thursday afternoon Oval Office press briefing to defend his costly White House remodel.
He was already fielding tough questions about his party’s heavy midterm election losses when a reporter brought up his interior design critics.
“Hillary Clinton criticized your updates, the gold…” the journalist said.
“She did?” the president cut in. “I don’t like her house either. I know her house very well.” He then defended his decorating choices: “Look, the Oval Office is a place of victory; it’s a place of prestige, like the White House.”
Online critics on X quickly mocked the exchange, the Irish Star noted. One viewer wrote: “Hillary says his gold decorations are tacky, and Trump immediately attacks her house. This man has the emotional maturity of a Real Housewife after three martinis.” Another user posted: “Reminder to trump… It’s not your house.”
Both Clintons weigh in
The design feud dates back to August, when the former secretary of state spoke with Kara Swisher on the Pivot podcast and called the gold-heavy look “tacky.” She told the show that the wall ornaments reflected the president’s “narcissistic personality and his need to feel important”.
Days before the midterms, she went further during an appearance on The View. “I think Trump has become more and more unhinged,” she told the hosts, warning that if Democrats won both chambers of Congress, he could grow “even more out of control”.
Her husband, former US President Bill Clinton, also blasted the renovations at a Florida campaign stop last week, pointing to the paved-over Rose Garden and a massive new ballroom.
“I think Congress made a mistake not protesting turning the Rose Garden into what looks like the entrance to Liberace’s bathroom,” Bill Clinton said.
