An Oval Office Replica Opens, Without Trump's Gilded Flourishes
During the Cold War, there was the missile gap, based on the false premise that the Soviet Union was outpacing the United States in amassing nuclear weapons. Economists have long argued about the wage gap, and pollsters have spent untold hours dissecting the gender gap after last year's election.
The newest gap that has appeared in the nation's capital, however, has to do with gold.
The gilt gap separates President Trump's Oval Office, which he has adorned with gold details and tchotchkes since taking office in January, and a newly redesigned life-size replica of it that lies just across the street at the White House Historical Association's People's House exhibit.
The association has been around since 1961, but the immersive Oval Office tour opened just last fall, with the goal of being an exact replica of the most famous room in the country. Until the Trump transformation was unveiled late last month, visitors who came had seen a room looking almost identical to the one occupied by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
But the gilt gap renders the newer replica far from exact.
'We are replicating President Trump's complete tenure within the Oval Office,' said Luke Boorady, the exhibit's managing director, 'starting with his first-term décor.'
Ann Compton, the chair of the association's advisory council, said the decision to go back in time was purely logistical.
'You can't go and buy anything that's in there right now,' Ms. Compton said. 'You have to have it made.'
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