U.S. President Donald Trump attends a Mexican Border Defense Medal presentation in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 15, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Since returning to the White House 11 months ago, President Donald Trump has given the White House Oval Office an extensive makeover and added a considerable amount of gold — giving it a much flashier look than it had under Democratic former President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, a lavish new ballroom is being built where the now-demolished East Wing once stood.
Democratic consultant David Axelrod, during a late December appearance on CNN, argued that Trump's obsession with gold and renaming institutions after himself—including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. — is a very bad look and a "political problem" at a time when so many Americans are worried about the economy and inflation.
Axelrod told CNN host Brianna Keilar and former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pennsylvania), "People are sitting around and thinking about about how they are going to pay their bills, and he's posting stuff about how he's doing to have marble handrails at the Kennedy Center. And he's posting pictures of his new marble Palm Room at the White House and so own. And people are saying to themselves, 'What the hell does that have to do with me? I thought he was going to be fighting for me to bring my costs down.' And he seems obsessed with gold and putting his name on things and remodeling buildings and rebuilding monuments to himself. And I think this is a huge political problem for him…. It's the Marie Antoinette thing that he's got going."
Marie Antoinette, the final queen of France, was the target of extreme animosity during the French Revolution for celebrating her lavish lifestyle while French peasants were suffering hunger and extreme poverty.
When Antoinette was executed by guillotine on at Paris' Place de le Révolution on October 16, 1793, it symbolized the end of the French monarchy — not unlike the Storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1793. Many years later, July 14 ("Le Quatorze Juillet" in French) is still celebrated as the French Independence Day.
Axelrod, who served as chief strategist for Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns, emphasized that although Trump is "not on the ballot" in the 2026 midterms, Republicans in general will pay a price politically for his Antoinette-like behavior.
"Republicans should be really concerned about what they're seeing," Axelrod told Keilar and Dent.
