Trump White House makeover: How does it compare to past presidential renovations?

Miami Herald

23-07-2025

Over the past six months, President Donald Trump has made a series of sweeping changes to the White House, transforming both its interior spaces and its exterior landscape.
He adorned the Oval Office with numerous portraits — including of Presidents George Washington, Andrew Jackson and Ronald Reagan — and installed gilded appliques and embellishments throughout several rooms.
More substantive alterations include erecting two towering 100-foot flagpoles on the lawn and paving over the historic Rose Garden.
He's also said he plans to construct a large ballroom, modeled after one at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort.
'It's gonna cost nothing, I'll spend the whole thing myself,' he said in February 'We'll do a big, beautiful room.'
How does Trump's White House makeover compare to those of his predecessors? Are his restylings and renovations unprecedented? McClatchy News has reached out to presidential historians for answers.
'Every president wants to leave their mark on the White House,' Alexis Coe, a presidential historian and fellow at New America, told McClatchy News. Most, though, 'are satisfied with a portrait swap.'
Recent predecessors
When compared to other recent occupants of the executive mansion, Trump, a former real estate developer, is indeed in a league of his own.
'Trump's proposed changes to the White House are more extensive than those made by his recent predecessors,' Nicole Anslover, a history professor at Florida Atlantic University, told McClatchy News. 'Most changes made by Presidents Biden, Obama and Bush were mainly cosmetic. Think new furnishings and artwork.'
For example, Obama added a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. to the Oval Office, and Bush hung several paintings depicting Texas landscapes. Clinton undertook a refurbishing of the West Wing.
'These were updates — some thoughtful, some cosmetic — but nothing intended to dominate the space or erase historical context,' Taylor Stoermer, a history lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, told McClatchy News. 'They abided by the norms and traditions of the office and the place.'
'Trump's changes are different,' Stoermer added. 'They're part of his usual assertion of personal branding.'
The Republican president's degree of involvement in the restylings is also somewhat unique.
'In the past, stylistic concerns have largely been the purview of the first lady,' Thomas Balcerski, a presidential historian at Eastern Connecticut State University, told McClatchy News. 'Trump has once again broken with tradition by insisting that cosmetic improvements around the White House be driven by his own personal tastes and preferences.'
Earlier presidents
That said, Trump's alterations pale in comparison to the lasting structural and design changes made by several earlier presidents, historians said.
For example, during the 1880s, President Chester Arthur ordered 'major renovations,' including by installing an elevator and plumbing system.
Arthur, a New Yorker like Trump, also undertook changes that evoked 'a Gilded Age fever dream,' Coe said. 'He auctioned off (Ulysses) Grant's old furniture and enlisted Louis Comfort Tiffany to design stained-glass windows.'
But, the biggest transformation came during the presidency of Harry Truman, which spanned from 1945 to 1953.
When he took office, the aging mansion — with its uneven floors and damaged walls — was deemed unsafe to live in. As a result, 'the entire interior was gutted and reconstructed,' Stoermer said.
'The restoration under Truman was so extensive that he actually lived across the street at Blair House for several years,' Anslover said
In fact, it was so all-encompassing that it altered the White House more than the fire of 1814, started by the British during the War of 1812, according to the White House Historical Association.
Then, similarly extensive decorative changes came in the early 1960s, during the presidency of John Kennedy, though they were spearheaded by his wife, Jackie Kennedy.
'She launched the White House Historical Association, strong-armed Congress into protecting historical furnishings, and essentially went on a nationwide treasure hunt for authentic pieces,' Stoermer said, noting that 'It was an almost obsessive mission…'
She also redesigned the Rose Garden — which is now being converted into a patio — beautifying it with rows of clipped hedges and multi-colored flowers.
'Her televised tour in 1962 was a declaration: this place belongs to everyone. It's a symbol of our collective, messy history,' Stoermer said, 'not a private palace for whoever's currently in charge.'