(The White House)

The Oval Office is getting even more shiny and gold

Donald Trump has always been a fan of gold and is bringing that interior design preference to the White House in a bigly way.

Jon Keegan

7/11/25 1:31PM

Back in April, shortly after President Trump declared his “Liberation Day” tariffs, which imposed 145% levies on goods imported from China, we noticed some decorative gold “cartouches” slapped on the walls of the Oval Office, highly concentrated around the fireplace, which Trump is increasingly using as a backdrop for his interactions with world leaders.

Intrigued by origins of these arbitrary decorative flourishes, we located some “High-density Home Decoration Polyurethane Appliques Ornament PU Foam Veneer Accessories” on Alibaba that looked very similar, though they’re not a perfect match.

Readers sent along some other possible listings that the White House may have sourced its bling from, and several other news outlets wrote about the new splashes of gold, including The Wall Street Journal, which said Trump had a “gold guy” from Florida whom he flew up to DC in Air Force One to redecorate the Oval. Maybe he gets his cartouches on Alibaba?

Since writing that story, I’ve been kind of obsessed with the White House’s official Flickr feed (yeah, kind of a throwback), looking for signs of new gold on the walls of the Oval Office.

Yesterday, I was looking at a new photo uploaded on July 9 featuring Trump sitting with President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani of Mauritania in front of the fireplace, and wouldn’t you know it? THERE’S MORE GOLD.

It seems the mantle has been reconfigured with nine ornate vessels and a new fancy clock in the middle. This left a little space under the George Washington portrait for a bit more gold, so another cartouche was squeezed in. But there’s more! Two more of the same cartouches were added below the portraits of Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States, and James K. Polk, the 11th president. Another two were slapped on either side of the marble fireplace.

Speaking on Tuesday afternoon during a cabinet meeting, The Washington Post reported that Trump veered off from the agenda to talk about his redecoration efforts, saying, “I love the frame of those pictures. Look at those frames. You know, I’m a frame person. Sometimes I like frames more than I like the pictures.” It seems the Cabinet Room is next up for a gilded transformation now that he’s made a few more changes to the Oval Office.

The fireplace has undergone a complete blingification, an explosion of gold leaf details and new appliqués. Two more on either side of the grandfather clock bring the total to seven visible in this photo.

Back in June, it seemed there wasn’t much empty space for more gold.

After staring at so much bling, it’s easy to forget how simple and sparse the Oval Office once was. This photo of President Biden greeting President-elect Trump has only a few gilded picture frames.

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Jon Keegan22h

FTC will appeal Meta antitrust case

Only a few months after successfully defending itself from an FTC antitrust lawsuit, Meta may be heading back to court. Today, the FTC announced that it would appeal the decision, reopening a yearslong suit.

The FTC called Meta’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp an illegal monopoly. The judge in the case found that in the years since the suit was first brought, the competitive landscape had changed dramatically, with Meta facing fierce competition from TikTok.

FTC will appeal ruling in Meta antitrust case over Instagram, WhatsApp deals

Max Knoblauch1/20/26

Netflix goes all-cash in bid for Warner Bros., boosting its odds

Netflix on Tuesday applied more pressure to Paramount Skydance in the ongoing bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, amending its offer to an all-cash proposal.

Netflix shares ticked up in premarket trading, while Paramount and Warner Bros. were down less than 1%.

The move, which was expected, does not increase the value of Netflix’s $82.7 billion offer for WBD. Netflix said shareholders will be able to vote on the deal in April.

In a Tuesday filing, Warner Bros. said that it values Discovery Global, the spin-off of its cable assets, at between $1.33 and $6.86 per share. Earlier this month, Paramount said it valued the cable TV business at $0 per share.

With Tuesday’s update, event contracts have swung even further in Netflix’s favor, with Paramount’s odds to end up in control of Warner Bros. falling to 14%. That’s below the odds for “none.”

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

Netflix Sweetens Warner Bros. Terms to All Cash in Bidding War

The move, which was expected, does not increase the value of Netflix’s $82.7 billion offer for WBD. Netflix said shareholders will be able to vote on the deal in April.

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

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.

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