Trump makes Oval Office a national monument, but successors can still redecorate

The proclamation, signed on 5 November, covers the Oval Office, the Outer Oval Office and the Cabinet Room. It directs the interior secretary to manage them through the National Park Service and develop a plan to preserve their structural and architectural features.

Before any action that would substantially alter or demolish the monument or its essential architectural elements, the proclamation requires documentation, review and consideration of alternatives. It also leaves room for ordinary operational and security changes that do not substantially impair the historic structure or architectural character.

Trump told reporters that there could be “no major modification without the approval of Congress”. The proclamation itself does not set out such a requirement. The BBC reports that large White House projects already require congressional permission.

The White House and its grounds were already a National Historic Landmark. The proclamation says it does not change existing exemptions for the White House under the National Historic Preservation Act.

Trump has added gold accents and portraits to the Oval Office during his second term. His proclamation explicitly preserves a president’s authority to redecorate and choose furnishings.

Historic preservation lawyer Greg Werkheiser told the BBC that Trump could not bind his successors in the way he suggested. Werkheiser’s firm has filed lawsuits against two other Trump administration projects. The Associated Press reports that a future president could also reverse the proclamation; Trump has himself modified national monument designations made by his predecessors.