While playing golf at his Bedminster Golf Club during his first administration, Trump declared, “That White House is a real dump.” He also told a journalist that “Camp David would be likable for about 30 minutes.” Last week, Trump said the Kennedy Center was “in tremendous disrepair.” And he has made several derogatory comments about D.C. itself, suggesting he should take it over and run it.
So, what is Trump’s taste in décor? Many designers have labeled it “dictator chic.” Peter York authored a book called Dictator Style: Lifestyles of the World’s Most Colorful Despots. He studied 16 dictators and concluded that their styles were remarkably similar. I’ll sum up common attributes. See if they sound familiar.
These dictators tend to “go big.” They don’t like antiques. Everything is repro—new, crisp, and shiny. They like French décor because they think it says “money” much more than the subtler English look. They get many of their design ideas from hotels–big reception rooms, big public rooms. They like gold—gold wall decorations, gold furniture, gold columns. After gold, they use a ton of glass–lots of shiny surfaces, chandeliers, giant mirrors, and tabletops. Art and ornaments are big and bright. They tend to commission large paintings of themselves, sometimes life-size or bigger.
All these attributes are the opposite of the design traditions of Washington, D.C. The American Capitol was designed to avoid Europe’s autocratic excesses and instead project a message of simplicity, democracy, and egalitarianism.
Each time I see Trump in the Oval Office since January 20th of this year, I notice more of his signature style. He brought gold angel statues from Mar-a-Lago. He added gold picture frames, a gilded TV remote, gold figurines on the mantle, gilded Rococo mirrors on the doors, and gold framed medallions now decorate the fireplace. There are 15 paintings on the walls, including a massive one of Ronald Reagan. He asked for the original Declaration of Independence, but the National Archives houses that faded document. So instead, Trump hung a valued replica of the Declaration that he hid behind a drape for its initial unveiling. He reinstalled his Diet Coke button. And he has added a big map of the Gulf of America. Let’s just say the Oval Office is now jam-packed with stuff.
Psychologists have done studies on the psyche of conspicuous consumption. The results are interesting. Such consumers are seen as arrogant, less moral, and less warm. Their ostentation is not effective in cooperative environments but tends to work in competitive environments—one-upmanship if you will.
It’s interesting because in some ways these preferences represent the major divide in our country. Some citizens are impressed with flaunting excess. They believe that society needs to be ordered based on social rank and see ostentatious tendencies as reinforcers of that rank. Others are completely turned off by it. They believe that equality and fairness are important and see ostentatious behavior as a manifestation of power, social inequality, and waste.
In general, western cultures tend to value equality more than Asian cultures which value social order.
The philosopher Bertrand Russell once wrote, “For my part, the thing I would wish to obtain from money would be leisure with security. But what the typical modern man desires to get with it is more money, with a view to ostentation, splendor, and the outshining of those who have hitherto been his equals.” Interesting.
Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of the federal human capital practice of an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, music, and nature.
Maurice Schlesinger says
Thanks for your writing. You are spot-on. His tastes are abhorrent to “…the design traditions of Washington, D.C. The American Capitol was designed to avoid Europe’s autocratic excesses and instead project a message of simplicity, democracy, and egalitarianism.” Its clear Mr. Trump’s psyche is expressed by his golden desire. Unfortunately, his preference is fools gold.
Maria Grant says
Maurice, thanks for writing. I agree–so much gold. What happened to understated elegance?
Deirdre LaMotte says
One should check out the pics of all Trump’s living spaces. He is
overcompensating because his father considered him a “loser”.
Good point dad. He needs this, who else would want to live in a gaudy eyesore than a wanna-be third world dictator?
Trump is tarting up the Oval with so much gold crap it will look like a Vegas brothel. He’ll feel right at home.
As someone pointed out, it is pathetic. He doesn’t need gold, he needs a good psychiatrist with infinite patience.
Maria Grant says
Deidre, thanks for writing. I agree that therapy is in order.
Pam Reynolds says
Bingo!
Bob Kopec says
If Trump paid any attention to his job instead of trying to make the White House look and feel like his apartment in Trump tower or Mar-a-Lago, women and children in South Sudan would not be dying. He is not the worst president yet (only 2 below him on the list of worst presidents) but give him time, he may still make dead last.
Maria Grant says
Bob, thanks for writing. Please identify the other two who are worse!
Patrick Hornberger says
I believe Trump’s home decor style is known as “Liberace period”— wait until he gets serious about re-doing the Kennedy Center.
Maria Grant says
Patrick, thanks for writing. Love the Liberace reference.
Matt LaMotte says
The more glitz, gilt and ostentation, the shallower the owner. Think of Jay Gatsby…
Maria Grant says
Matt, good point.
Michael Davis says
Ms Grant, thank you for this well researched essay. Regarding the White House, I was only aware of his plan to pave over the rose garden so he’d have a patio like he has in Mar-a-Lago. Given his views on the EPA, I doubt Trump has any interest in natural things. Golf courses are not natural. It does appear that he’s put a lot of gold in the White House and eliminated some of the plants that had been in prominent places. A photo essay comparing his White House with Putin’s Kremlin would be enlightening.
As for the man himself, I think Trump should hang a portrait of himself similar to the Picture of Dorian Gray.
Maria Grant says
Michael, thanks for writing. Dorian Gray here we come.
HR Worthington says
I think this is yet another argument that proves too much. Order is the heartbeat of Federalist design. The style emphasizes proportion, classical columns, and a sense of permanence. These are visual cues meant to evoke stability and legitimacy. Washington, D.C.’s layout itself, designed by Pierre Charles L’Enfant (a Frenchman ironically), mirrors this with its grid-and-axial plan, radiating from key monuments like a physical manifestation of rational governance. The Founding Fathers, steeped in Enlightenment thinking, saw this order as a way to project strength and unity, a counterpoint to the chaos of revolution or factionalism. It’s no accident that the style echoes Vitruvius’ principles of strength and beauty, filtered through a republican lens.
What you are alluding to (“simplicity, democracy, and egalitarianism”) is not present is this architecture at all. Rather those principles are more evocative of the Bauhaus movement. Bauhaus wasn’t about equality in some abstract, philosophical sense but a practical, democratic one. The Bauhaus designers wanted to break down the elitism of traditional art and architecture, making good design available to everyone…not just the wealthy. By merging art, craft, and industry, they aimed to produce affordable, functional objects and buildings for the masses. (Think of their furniture—like the Wassily Chair.) This wasn’t equality of outcome but equality of access, a radical shift from the ornate, exclusive architecture of the past which is what Neo-Classical DC typifies. However, that radicalized under Hannes Meyer, the Bauhaus’s second director from 1928 to 1930. Meyer was an avowed Marxist, and he shifted the school’s focus hard toward social utility and mass production, sidelining what he saw as bourgeois formalism. His slogan “Volksbedarf statt Luxusbedarf” (“the needs of the people instead of the need for luxury”) aligned with communist rhetoric about prioritizing the proletariat.
I can go on, but in any event, your take on this is nonetheless fascinating. Trump’s design choices would not be mine, but his aesthetics do not make him a dictator. I am endlessly fascinated by how hatred of Trump can pervert almost any subject. It is quite amazing.
Maria Grant says
HR, thanks for writing. Somehow I don’t think alienating our allies, attempting to disempower the courts, threatening law firms, eliminating government agencies with no due process, and installing the most unqualified cabinet ever are signs of a healthy democracy.
Deirdre LaMotte says
It is not “our hatred of Trump” that is of issues.
It is Trump’s hatred of
anything decent and good for our nation/world
that is shocking.
Wilson Dean says
The superficiality and shallowness of Trump is reflected in both his aesthetics and his policies.
Maria Grant says
Wilson, thanks for writing. I must say it’s all so depressing!