Trump signs proclamation declaring Oval Office national monument

We’re making it a national monument, and it will not be allowed to be touched by anybody, destroyed, ripped down by stupid people, in order to build something in a slightly different shape, US President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday. The proclamation designates the Oval Office, the adjacent Cabinet Room, and the Outer Oval Office as a national monument, marking Trump's first official action after his party was swept aside in midterm elections on Tuesday. But while the proclamation aims to ring-fence the West Wing's most recognizable spaces, legal experts and the text of the order itself reveal significant loopholes that allow future commanders-in-chief to redecorate or even revoke the designation entirely.

Why did Donald Trump sign the Oval Office proclamation now?

The signing on Thursday was Trump's third public event of the week fixated on his Washington pet projects. On Wednesday, a day after Republicans suffered defeats in key races across the country, the president gathered reporters to sign the final beam being raised during construction of his opulent ballroom project. On Monday, he went to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to talk about his renovation of the landmark.

The timing coincided directly with political fallout from the midterm elections on Tuesday, where Republicans suffered defeats in key races. As Trump signed the document behind his desk, a red baseball cap with VETO on the front sat on the Resolute Desk as a not-so-subtle nod to the shifting of powers in Congress. Meanwhile, Democrats are preparing to ramp up oversight. Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a flurry of letters on Thursday to known donors to Trump's ballroom, demanding that they provide information or face alternative measures to obtain compliance.

What does the national monument designation actually protect?

The proclamation directs the Interior secretary to manage the Oval Office and Cabinet Room and requires documentation, review, and consideration of alternatives before any action that would substantially alter or demolish the monument. Trump told reporters that any major changes would need review from Congress, stating, If they want to say, 'Let's not have oval anymore, let's make it square,' what happens is they have to go back to Congress and hopefully the Congress, the people in Congress, will be smart enough not to let that happen.

However, that specific requirement is not in the document's text. The White House grounds are already designated as a National Historic Landmark, and Congress has carved out an exemption to the National Historic Preservation Act in order to allow presidents to make needed changes. The current Oval Office has existed since the early 1930s, after its conception by President Franklin D Roosevelt.

Legal analysts point out that the monument order has distinct limitations. Greg Werkheiser, from the law firm Cultural Heritage Partners, which specialises in historic preservation, notes that temporary alterations like furniture and decor is completely up to the president's discretion. As long as they're not damaging the permanent art and architecture, they can generally do whatever they want, Werkheiser told the BBC. He argued that Trump's order is legally meaningless because he can't do it while he is absolutely taking an axe to the law that allows us to preserve other historic sites, pointing to the administration's push for other projects across Washington.

Furthermore, the proclamation explicitly exempts interior decor. The text says that nothing in it will restrict the President's authority to redecorate the monument, select furnishings, or make ordinary operational and security modifications that do not substantially impair the monument's historic structure or architectural character. Succeeding presidents can also revoke or revise executive proclamations through new executive action, a tactic Trump himself used to dramatically downsize two major national monuments in Utah during his first term, and again during his second term after former President Joe Biden had fully restored them.

How has Trump transformed the West Wing since returning to office?

Since returning to the White House, the real estate mogul has overseen numerous design changes to various rooms, including the Oval Office, where he has filled the wall space with portraits, a copy of the Declaration of Independence and numerous golden accents. On Thursday, Trump highlighted the installation of new chandeliers in the Cabinet Room to address very bad lighting.

• Paving over the Rose Garden's lawn with a stone patio reminiscent of his luxurious Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida
• Installing two towering flagpoles on the North and South Lawns
• Building a newly installed multimillion-dollar granite helicopter pad on the South Lawn, intended to protect the lawn from damage by the new presidential helicopters
• Lining the West Wing Colonnade with an exhibition of presidential portraits, dubbed the “Presidential Walk of Fame”, featuring controversial plaques with gold lettering beneath the portraits, which include partisan criticisms of some former presidents, including Barack Obama

Trump did not elaborate on precisely what he was hoping to prevent but suggested that the Oval Office might face some threat in the future, though his administration has faced several lawsuits alleging that his Washington beautification projects were done without the necessary approval. If anybody ever decides to come and start knocking down walls, you call me wherever I may be, Trump said, and I'll come back here and I'll make sure it never happens.

Whether this action could simply be reversed by a future president or a legal challenge remains unclear, leaving the architectural fate of the Oval Office tied directly to the future.