President Donald Trump has posted a photograph of his latest modification to the White House, amid a number of clips of U.S. airstrikes on Iran.
“The newly revamped West Wing of the White House, including signage and renovated walls, maple trees, and plantings!” the president wrote in a Truth Social caption accompanying a wonky picture of the entranceway in question, which now announces itself as “The West Wing” in gold italic lettering.
Trump’s latest tweak was warmly received by MAGA commentators on social media, who applauded the “major glow-up” given to the executive mansion and praised the “beautiful updates to this iconic symbol of American leadership.”
“The Democrats WILL find a reason to complain about this, because it looks nice!” another conservative pundit wrote, prophetically.
Among the detractors was AFP journalist Sebastian Smith, who said: “Trump has put a sign saying ‘The West Wing’ over the… West Wing. Presumably would write ‘The East Wing’ over the East Wing except that’s been bulldozed.”
The president’s particular fancy for maple trees was discussed in Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s recent bombshell book Regime Change, in which the authors described visiting the Oval Office to interview Trump early on in the Iran war, only to find him more interested in landscaping than taking questions on the conflict.
The signage is only the president’s newest addition to a White House that has changed much since his return to power, the process beginning when he made over the Oval with as much gold as possible.
He has since had the Rose Garden paved over into a patio reminiscent of the open-air dining area at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, demolished the first lady’s offices to make way for his controversial ballroom, added new partisan plaques to the colonnade and flagpoles to the lawns and had the Lincoln Bedroom’s adjoining bathroom redecorated.
Trump is currently having a new helipad built on the South Lawn to accommodate Marine One and also recently floated the idea of fixing a bald eagle emblem to a prominent portico balcony, only for social media commentators to point out its eerie echo of Nazi iconography.
The president has also turned his attention towards “beautifying” other national monuments around Washington, D.C., for the country’s 250th anniversary year, with the recent clean-up of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool proving a particularly troubled project.
Beyond the brief foray into home improvement posting, Trump did otherwise concentrate on the second night of bombing in the Persian Gulf, which came after he had railed against Tehran at a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
The president called the country’s leadership “scum” and said the memorandum of understanding they signed three weeks ago was now “over” following attacks on three tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
Asked about the future of the fragile ceasefire agreement painstakingly forged with Iran in June, Trump, sitting beside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, said: “It’s a very interesting question. To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them.
“They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them.”
Rutte defended the American response in the strait, saying new airstrikes had been “absolutely necessary” to punish the Middle Eastern state for violating the terms of the memorandum.
Trump subsequently claimed aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington that Iran wants a deal “so badly” after the resumption of hostilities.
