President Donald Trump is using his post-election public appearances to talk about the lasting physical changes he hopes to leave behind in the White House.
In the two days following the Republicans’ massive losses in the midterm elections, Trump spoke publicly twice. Both times he focused on the rooms and renovations of the White House.
On Thursday, Trump signed a proclamation designating the Oval Office and Cabinet Room as a national monument in an effort to block any significant changes by future presidents.
“We’re going to declare it a national monument and we’re going to send it to Congress to ratify,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It cannot be taken apart, destroyed, touched or anything else.”
Trump, who later took questions from reporters on other topics, said any “major changes” to the Oval Office and Cabinet Room would have to be approved by Congress, adding that he hopes “members of Congress will be smart enough to not let that happen.”
The White House has officially been a United States National Historic Landmark since 1960. Trump wrote in the proclamation that “the Oval Office deserves specific recognition and protective management as a discrete historic structure of national significance.”
The signing ceremony took place a day after Trump spoke to reporters at the construction site of the new White House ballroom he is building. Although it was the first time he spoke publicly to the media after Democrats won several seats in deep red states to secure control of Congress, he focused his comments on the ballroom.
“I’m doing it because the White House is the ultimate symbol of America and it should be pristine, perfect,” Trump said, adding that he felt “it would be appropriate to have the media here.”
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