'I Picked It All Myself': Trump Reveals Redecoration Of The Cabinet Room, Asks For Recommendations

Forbes Breaking News

At a White House Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Trump spoke about the Cabinet room.

Transcript

00:00Maybe just in closing, you know, we spent a lot of time, effort, very little money on this room.

00:05This is called the cabinet room. It's been here for a long time.

00:09And it had some pictures that were not many of them and not very good ones.

00:15And I actually spent time in the vaults.

00:17The vaults are where we have a lot of great pictures and artwork.

00:21And I picked it all myself. I'm very proud of it.

00:24That's Andrew Jackson, great Andrew Jackson.

00:27That's a gentleman named, and we call him President Polk.

00:32He was sort of a real estate guy.

00:34He was, people don't realize, he was one of them.

00:37He was a one-termer, but he was a very good president.

00:42But, and I'm not sure I should be doing this.

00:44He actually gave us the state of California.

00:46He was the one that I'm not sure.

00:51Maybe he won't be there for long.

00:54But if you notice, the frame is the exact same size,

00:57almost as the other one is Andrew Jackson.

00:59So that was a part of the reason, too, I have to be honest.

01:02But Polk is, was actually a very good president,

01:04who's got the same frame that I needed, okay?

01:08And up here, you have the original George Washington

01:11right behind the light.

01:13And then you have Dwight Eisenhower,

01:15who was a very underrated president.

01:17He built the interstate system,

01:18and he was the toughest president,

01:21I guess, until we came along.

01:22But I don't mind giving up that ground,

01:24because I don't want to be too tough on it.

01:26But we want to be humane.

01:27But he was the toughest president on immigration.

01:31He, he was very strong at the borders.

01:34Very, very strong.

01:36And sometimes you can be too strong.

01:38He was strong at the borders.

01:40And during a certain period of time,

01:42they were so strong that almost every farmer

01:45in California went bankrupt.

01:48And we have to remember that.

01:49We have to work together and we have to remember that.

01:52But he was a very good president

01:54and a very good general and a very good president.

01:57And I thought he deserved a position somewhere on this floor.

02:02And then you have, this is very exciting to me,

02:05he was not a Republican, to put it mildly,

02:08but he was, you know, he was a four-termer.

02:11He was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

02:14And have you noticed, there are a lot of ramps outside.

02:17We have ramps, people say, it's an unusual place for a ramp.

02:20It was because of him.

02:22He was wheelchair-bound.

02:25But he was an amazing man.

02:28It's an amazing portrait.

02:30And we used to have him in the room, a different portrait.

02:34And it was a terrible portrait.

02:36It was almost like it was done by a child.

02:39And I used to say, you know,

02:40I can't believe that he would have approved of that portrait of himself.

02:43And I was in the vaults and looking at things.

02:47I said, what's that?

02:48And we have some great curators here.

02:50We have six curators at the White House.

02:52They have two for paintings.

02:54They have them for furniture.

02:55They have them for different things.

02:58I guess cost is no object.

02:59Okay, cost is, maybe I'd have one, but that's all right.

03:03But we have six and they're very talented though.

03:05And he said, that's a picture of FDR.

03:08I said, really, let me see it.

03:09They took off the wrappings, very well preserved.

03:11And I said, that's the picture they've been looking for for years.

03:15That was the picture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

03:19And I said, oh, wow.

03:21And likewise, that fit, see a frame?

03:24Frame-wise, it just doesn't work if you have, I want to be nice,

03:28but it doesn't work if you have a big frame, a little frame of you.

03:31But it's like perfection.

03:32I'm a perfectionist.

03:34The mirror was down in the vaults also.

03:36I said, where is this from?

03:37And it's a very old, very storied mirror, beautiful.

03:40Before we put that up.

03:42And then over there is Honest Abe Lincoln.

03:46And that picture was in his bedroom.

03:50And we thought that this would be a very important place

03:54because this is where wars are ended.

03:57I'm not going to say wars are declared.

03:59I'm going to say wars are ended, okay?

04:00We'll be positive.

04:01And that's the picture of Abe Lincoln from his bedroom.

04:07Sat in the bedroom for many, many years.

04:08That was his favorite picture of himself.

04:11And the Lincoln bedroom is very famous.

04:13You remember when Bill Clinton had it and he rented it out to people.

04:19We don't do that.

04:20But it's an incredible, it's an incredible room.

04:23And we took that picture from his bedroom.

04:25That's Abe Lincoln.

04:27And then over here you have John Adams and it's, this was, they were the first occupants

04:34of the White House, 1800.

04:35And John Quincy Adams, Mrs. Adams, they were the first occupants.

04:41So we have them looking at each other and in between their stare is Abraham Lincoln trying

04:48to make peace.

04:49And that picture was in a room that I have that was not important like the cabinet.

04:56I gave it up.

04:56I said I have to give it up because that's one of the greatest pictures of the White House.

05:00The White House is tremendous art.

05:02And the Oval Office, when we're there, we'll go over that.

05:06That's really been something.

05:08Then we got the drapes and we got the whole thing.

05:10We got new drapes.

05:11We got new, it wasn't a big expense, very, very small.

05:15And we took some of the China wear and silver wear and trophy wear, they call it, from the vaults.

05:22And we had it cleaned up, hadn't been shined up in a hundred years.

05:26Some of this has sat in the vaults for over a hundred years.

05:29Amazing.

05:30Over a hundred years.

05:31Many of the pictures that were put up in the Oval Office, as an example, those two, as

05:36an example.

05:37So he was president.

05:38They moved in in 1800 and he won the election, I believe, in November of 1800, John Quincy Adams.

05:46And we thought that would be, he was considered to be a good president.

05:49And he was the first occupant of the White House, so it sort of made sense.

05:53And I love the frame of those pictures, look at those frames, you know, I'm a frame person.

05:58Sometimes I like frames more than I like the pictures.

06:00And we have the flags of the Marines and Space Force now has its own flag.

06:06I'm very proud of Space Force.

06:08But the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Space Force, the whole thing.

06:12And Coast Guard is right there.

06:15You'll never forget the Coast Guard.

06:16They do a great job.

06:17So we have the flags throughout the office.

06:19And it's really become quite a beautiful place.

06:23I don't want to tell this, oh, Marco pointed that out.

06:27I was going to leave the clock.

06:29So as president, you have the power.

06:31If I go into the State Department or Department of Commerce or Treasury,

06:35if I see anything that I like, I'm allowed to take it.

06:40Do you know this?

06:41So I'm in Marco's.

06:42I see this gorgeous clock, grandfather clock.

06:47And there it is.

06:47I said, Marco.

06:51I didn't know about it.

06:53I had to read him the rule and regulation.

06:55I said, Marco, I love this clock.

06:57Look at it.

06:58It's beautiful.

07:00He said, what clock?

07:01I said, the clock that's in the other room

07:05is incredible.

07:06And nobody gets to see it there.

07:09Marco, I tried to talk him into it first.

07:11And it sort of worked.

07:12And then I had to use a little more.

07:14I said, I'd love to take that clock out

07:16and put it in the cabinet room.

07:18He said, no, are you serious?

07:20I said, Marco, I have the right to do it, Marco.

07:23And he said, all right, what the hell?

07:27That's his contribution to the cabinet room.

07:30But it's, by the way, it's an incredible clock.

07:31And, you know, it's an important room.

07:33So you may see it again.

07:35Maybe we'll move it back someday.

07:37Anyway, so that's pretty much it.

07:39But it really is great.

07:42Here we put out, you know, these lamps

07:46have been very important, actually,

07:48whether people love them or not.

07:50But they're, if you see pictures like Pearl Harbor

07:54and Tor, Tor, Tor, you see movies about the White House

07:58where wars are being discussed,

08:00oftentimes they'll show those lamps

08:02or something like those lamps,

08:03something that looks like them.

08:05Probably not the reals,

08:06because I don't think they were allowed to.

08:07This is a very important room.

08:08It's a sacred room.

08:10And I don't think they made movies from here.

08:12You never know what they do.

08:14But they were missing medallions.

08:16See the medallions on top?

08:18They had a chain going into the ceiling.

08:20And I said, you can't do that.

08:22You have to have a medallion.

08:23They said, what's a medallion?

08:24I said, I'll show you.

08:25And we got some beautiful medallions.

08:28And you see them.

08:29They were put up there.

08:30It makes the lamps look better.

08:31So we did these changes.

08:34And, you know, when you think of it,

08:36the cost was almost nothing.

08:38We also painted the room in a nice color, beige color.

08:43And it's been really something.

08:45The only question is, will I gold-lif the corners?

08:49You could maybe tell me my cabinet could take a bow.

08:52You see the top-line moldings.

08:57And the only question is, do you gold-lif it?

08:59Because you can't paint it.

09:00If you paint it, it won't look good,

09:02because they've never found a paint that looks like gold.

09:05You see that in the Oval Office.

09:07They've tried for years and years.

09:09Somebody could become very wealthy.

09:10But they've never found a paint that looks like gold.

09:14So painting it is easy, but it won't look right.

09:16And the question is whether or not we should gold-lif it.

09:19Does any?

09:19Linda, do you have an opinion?

09:20I'd gold-lif it.

09:21You like it the way?

09:22No, I'd gold-lif it.

09:24You'd gold-lif it?

09:24Yeah.

09:25Who would gold-lif it?

09:26Could I erase you?

09:27How about...

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