After his second term began, President Donald Trump redecorated the Oval Office with a gold-themed aesthetic similar to his Trump Tower penthouse and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. One expert is noticing a distinct similarity between Trump's and that of a French monarch known for his over-the-top taste.
In a Friday essay for Slate, Grinnell College French professor David Harrison — who also leads an organization focused on studying France — observed how Trump is resembling Louis XIV (also known as "the Sun King") in his approach to the Oval Office and the White House. Harrison reminded readers that Trump sought to recreate at Mar-a-Lago the same "hall of mirrors" at the Palace of Versailles.
He named interior designer Angelo Donghia as the brains behind styling Trump's Manhattan residence in the same vein as Versailles, which he noted the Duke de Saint-Simon famously criticized as "a masterpiece in bad taste." And he opined that Trump's favored style would not be looked upon favorably by most Americans. However, the French expert went on to suggest that beyond its monarchistic aesthetic, Trump's approach to decorating the Oval Office could also be seen as a reflection of how he views power.
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"Along with the anti-royalist sentiment that used to characterize U.S. politics, I always assumed that most Americans had no real stomach for the hubris and sheer garishness that defined the style and surroundings of France’s most famous king," Harrison wrote. "More disturbing, of course, than the president’s taste is the administration’s view of executive authority. This evokes the absolutist rhetoric of Louis XIV’s worst sycophants, which Saint-Simon despised ... Saint-Simon knew that when kings embrace their own flattery, they open themselves to manipulation, and the writer viewed Louis XIV as an illusory absolutist who was in fact controlled by fawning scoundrels."
However, the French expert went on to suggest that beyond its monarchistic aesthetic, Trump's approach to decorating the Oval Office could also be seen as a reflection of how he views power.
According to Harrison, the similarities between Trump and Louis XIV end when looking into the differences in how each leader governed. While Trump has so far presided over the deconstruction of the administrative state, the Sun King made significant investments in science, the arts and technological advancement. He opined that Trump is much more like Louis XVI, who he described as a "mediocre" leader who was eventually overthrown.
"It’s an irony of history that Trump’s love affair with Louis XIV may mean that this experiment will ultimately be continued somewhere else—in some land we probably now consider backward and uncivilized, and where a gilded hall of mirrors has less attraction than a system of laws and values against authoritarianism," he wrote.
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Click here to read Harrison's full essay in Slate.