(The White House)

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Shop this look: Buy cheap, faux gold dupes of Oval Office decor

Some of the gold decorations in the Oval Office look... very similar to items we found for sale on a Chinese marketplace.

Jon Keegan

4/15/25 4:05PM

Since President Donald Trump moved back into the White House in January, it has undergone some major decorative changes. The Swedish ivy that perched upon the mantle has been replaced with golden vases from the White House collection. And the room, overall, has just gotten noticeably more shiny and gold.

Looking at photos taken in the Oval Office this week with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, we noticed several decorative medallions applied to the marble fireplace, and the same ones stuck on the wall under portraits in gilded frames.

President Trump with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador — (Photo: The White House)

Sometime after March, ornate gold decorative medallions were added to the cornice around the ceiling. The fact that several copies of the same decoration were showing up in different spots (made of different material) made us wonder where these were sourced and what they were made of.

President Trump meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office — (Photo: The Washington Post/Getty Images)

A quick photo search on Alibaba showed many such “decorative appliqués” available in white and gold. We came across one item that looks very much like the ones all over the Oval Office.

This “High-density Home Decoration Polyurethane Appliques Ornament PU Foam Veneer Accessories” from Guangzhou Homemax Decorative Material Limited on Alibaba is a dead ringer. The decorations are available in many colors: “matte white most, or gold, silver, antique gold or bronze, mixed color, customized color.”

Screenshot of Alibaba — (Screenshot: Sherwood News)

The price? Between $1 and $5 apiece (but the minimum order is 50 items). And that isn’t accounting for the steep 145% tariffs that Trump recently slapped on Chinese imports.

As you can see from this comparison, this looks very close, but it may not be a perfect match. To be fair, it is certainly possible that Chinese manufacturers are copying a high-quality design from higher-end architectural suppliers, which provided the new decor to the White House.

I messaged the owners of Guangzhou Homemax Decorative Material Limited, and a customer service agent named Ruth Fu quickly responded to my question about the item’s availability.

“Hello Sir. Yes we have this model. Do you need gold color, please?”

I followed up to ask if that was indeed their product hanging in the Oval Office, but I did not hear back.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For reference, here is what the Oval Office looked like in November 2024, when President Biden met with the president of Indonesia:

US President Joe Biden meets with President of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto in the Oval Office (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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Max Knoblauch1/8/26

Paramount doesn’t improve its offer for Warner Bros., leaving its fate to a long-shot shareholder appeal

Paramount Skydance on Thursday reaffirmed its $30-per-share offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, again stating that it believes the offer to be superior to rival Netflix’s.

In a press release, Paramount said its last amendment to the offer — which included a $40.4 billion personal guarantee from Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison — “cured every issue raised by WBD.”

The problem: Warner Bros.’ board on Wednesday unanimously voted to reject that offer, its sixth rejection of a Paramount takeover and second rejection of this specific $30-per-share bid. Warner’s board stated that it believes Paramount’s offer to be inferior to Netflix’s due in part to an “extraordinary amount of debt financing” and lower effective termination fees should the deal not clear the regulatory process.

By not improving the bid, Paramount is effectively leaving the deal in the hands of Warner Bros.’ shareholders, who will have to weigh the bids and the multiple rejections. Event contracts show a moderate boost in Parmount’s odds to end up in control of WBD on Thursday morning, jumping to 31% as of 9:30 a.m. ET, up from 27% at 9:00 a.m. ET.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Max Knoblauch12/17/25

Warner Bros. Discovery’s board tells shareholders to turn down Paramount’s “inadequate” hostile bid

Warner Bros. Discovery has told shareholders to reject Paramount’s hostile takeover bid, with the company releasing a statement early Wednesday urging shareholders to take the Netflix offer on the table. WBD’s board of directors said the outcome of the Netflix deal is “extraordinary by any measure.”

Paramount’s offer, in contrast, was described in the letter as “illusory,” providing “inadequate value,” and likely to impose “numerous, significant risks and costs on WBD.” The board said Paramount has “misled WBD shareholders that its proposed transaction has a ‘full backstop’ from the Ellison family,” and the board also outlined that it doesn’t believe there is a “material difference in regulatory risk between the PSKY offer and the Netflix merger.”

WBD shares dipped in the minutes leading up to the market close on Tuesday after news leaked that its management was preparing to encourage shareholders to reject Paramount’s bid, and shares of the HBO parent were down at $28.66, off 0.83% from yesterday’s close, as of 7:56 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Netflix was ticking higher, up around 1.7%, and Paramount Skydance was modestly in the red, down 1%.

Several outlets have reported that Jared Kushner’s firm would back out of the group that had been assembled to help finance the Paramount bid. Confirming this withdrawal, a spokesperson for the firm helmed by the president’s son-in-law told NBC News that “the dynamics of the investment have changed significantly since we initially became involved in October.”

Analysts this month have said that a renewed bidding war for Warner Bros. seems “inevitable” given the antitrust concerns surrounding Netflix’s potential acquisition. President Trump on Tuesday appeared to distance himself from speculation around his closeness to Paramount’s owners, posting on Truth Social, “If they are friends, I’d hate to see my enemies!”

Warner’s attempt to influence its shareholders could fuel a higher bid from Paramount in the coming weeks — shareholders currently have until January 8 to decide whether to accept the current offer.

Exclusive | Warner Preparing to Tell Shareholders to Reject Paramount Offer

Jon Keegan12/16/25

Senators open investigation into data centers’ effect on consumer utility bills

As Big Tech builds more and more massive data centers in small towns around the country, the public is starting to ask questions about whether they are to blame for rising utility bills.

Today Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent letters to the CEOs of some of the biggest builders of data centers: Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, CoreWeave, Digital Realty, and Equinix.

The senators wrote:

“Utility companies have spent billions of dollars updating the electrical grid to accommodate the unprecedented energy demands of AI data centers and appear to recoup the costs by raising residential utility bills. Through these utility price increases, American families bankroll the electricity costs of trillion-dollar tech companies.”

Electricity prices in the US are indeed up, rising 6.2% since last year. A recent Bloomberg analysis found that ratepayers within 50 miles of data centers saw rates increase up to 276% over the past five years.

The companies have until January 12, 2026, to respond to the senators.

Senator Warren, Lawmakers Open Investigation into Big Tech Data Centers’ Role in Driving Up Families’ Utility Costs | U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts

The senators wrote:

“Utility companies have spent billions of dollars updating the electrical grid to accommodate the unprecedented energy demands of AI data centers and appear to recoup the costs by raising residential utility bills. Through these utility price increases, American families bankroll the electricity costs of trillion-dollar tech companies.”

The companies have until January 12, 2026, to respond to the senators.

Hyunsoo Rim12/11/25

TIME names the “Architects of AI” as its Person of the Year for 2025

TIME just announced its Person of the Year… and it’s not a single person.

The magazine selected the “Architects of AI” as its 2025 honoree, spotlighting the executives and engineers behind the year’s AI boom. One of the two covers features eight tech leaders perched on a steel beam — recreating the iconic “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” photo from 1932 — including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, AMD’s Lisa Su, xAI’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at the center, whose chips power many of today’s AI models.

Why the Architects of AI Are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year

Western Auctioneer with Two Fingers up and Gavel in Hand

As investors pick sides in Netflix vs. Paramount, analysts say a renewed Warner Bros. bidding war looks inevitable

Analysts at Bloomberg on Wednesday said Paramount’s WBD hostile takeover offer could go as high as $35 per share.

Max Knoblauch12/10/25

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