Power
The Oval Office
(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

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.

More Power

See all Power
Jon Keegan
10/10/25
OpenAI’s internal Slack messages could cost it billions in copyright suit

Authors and publishers suing OpenAI over copyright infringement were granted access to internal OpenAI communications about the deletion of a pirated books dataset, and now want to review attorney communications.

Frightened Man
Max Knoblauch
10/9/25
US corporate spending on private flights for executives has ballooned in recent years

The median expense spent by America’s largest companies on air travel jumped 66% from 2020 to 2024.

1990s Business man private jet
power
Claire Yubin Oh

OK, so when was the longest shutdown in US history?

The US government officially shut down at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday after senators failed to agree on a last-minute funding bill. Though initially shrugging off the threat of a shutdown during yesterday’s session, stocks were mildly in the red on Wednesday as investors reacted to what is now the 11th shutdown in the government’s history.

Until this latest shutdown, there had been 20 government funding gaps experienced since 1976 — though not all ended in a full shutdown, with full closure averted in half of those cases.

Indeed, prior to the 1980s, funding gaps didn’t typically have major effects on government operations, with agencies continuing to operate on the basis that the funding would come eventually. However, a more stringent interpretation of the rules led to a stricter appropriations process from the early 1980s onward, with many subsequent funding gaps resulting in a shutdown of affected agencies (unless the gaps were quickly fixed or occurred over a weekend).

Obviously, the duration of the latest shutdown is still unclear, but it will continue until Congress passes a funding bill — most likely via a “continuing resolution,” which has ended every shutdown since 1990. Data analyzed by USAFacts suggest that it might not be a one- or two-day affair, as funding gaps have lengthened in recent years.

Government shutdown patterns
Sherwood News

Indeed, the last shutdown, which began in December 2018, ended up becoming the longest in history, at a whopping 34 days. By the time the government reopened in January 2019, about $3 billion (in 2019 dollars) had been wiped from the GDP in Q4, per data from the Congressional Budget Office, with approximately $18 billion in “federal discretionary spending” delayed over the roughly five-week stretch.

power
Max Knoblauch

GM climbs following upgrade, report that Trump administration seeks stake in its lithium mine partner

Shares of General Motors rose more than 2% in premarket trading Wednesday following an upgrade of the stock by UBS from “neutral” to “buy.” The firm also hiked its price target for GM by 45% to $81.

Also likely elevating GM was a Reuters report that the Trump administration is exploring taking a 10% stake in Lithium Americas, the automaker’s partner in a yet to open Thacker Pass lithium mine. Shares of Lithium Americas surged 68% in the premarket.

GM, which invested $625 million into the lithium mine last year, holds a 38% stake in the joint venture. The mine is expected to become the Western Hemisphere’s primary lithium source in 2028, when it’s slated to open, producing enough of the metal to make 800,000 electric vehicle batteries.

Prior to its plans for Lithium Americas, the Trump administration last month said it would take a 10% stake in Intel. In July, it announced a 15% stake in rare earths miner MP Materials.

News Reporter 1970s

Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension highlights Nexstar and Sinclair’s vast control over US airwaves

Nexstar and Sinclair control large swaths of US television stations. Nexstar’s planned merger could make their influence even greater.

Max Knoblauch9/18/25

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.
©2025 Sherwood Media, LLC