Trump invited The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, Ashley Parker and Michael Sherer to the White House for an interview. They’ve published long excerpts of it. Here’s a bit:
Trump: I did it for you. [He makes a sweeping gesture.] If you take a look back, Jeffrey, this is the new Oval Office—and people love it. Those paintings were all in the vaults. We have vaults downstairs. They have about 4,000 pictures, and I took some of the great presidents.
Goldberg: It really does look different.
Trump: Well, now it looks like it’s supposed to look. Before, they didn’t take care of it. There was no tender loving care.
Parker: Are you using your own money for the Oval Office?
Trump: Yeah, I do it on my own. You see up top? That came all out of Mar-a-Lago.
Parker: Really?
Trump: Yeah.
Goldberg: Wait, the gilded—?
Trump: Yeah, the gold. And that’s all 24-karat gold, which is interesting because they’ve never come up with a paint that looks like gold. They’ve never come up with a paint where you can just paint it and it looks like gold.
Michael Scherer: Is there truth to the rumor you’re going to do the ceiling?
Trump: Yeah, I’m doing that. The question is: Do I do a chandelier? Beautiful crystal chandelier, top of the line, beautiful. Would be nice in here. It almost calls for it, but I don’t know. We’re more focused on China, Russia.
The oval office looks like a conference room at the Trump Taj Mahal. It’s hideous.