by Ariana Figueroa, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]
November 5, 2026
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to establish the Oval Office and White House Cabinet Room as a national monument in order to prevent any major renovations to those spaces that are not approved by Congress.
Trump, who tore down the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom, said “no major modifications” should be made to those rooms without the approval of Congress.
“We’ve had a lot of victories in this office,” Trump said. “So we’re making it a national monument, and it will not be allowed to be touched by anybody, destroyed, ripped down by stupid people.”
After this week’s midterm elections, in which Republicans lost majorities in both chambers of Congress, the president has focused on renovation projects across Washington, D.C.
In his last appearance before Election Day, Trump held a press conference at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, one of the projects he’s focused on.
The day after Republicans’ devastating losses across the country, his post-election press conference focused on updates about the construction of the ballroom.
Trump said he would ask Congress to codify his executive order. If lawmakers do not do so during the lame-duck session, it’s unlikely to happen in the next Congress with Democrats in charge of both chambers.
Text of the proclamation was not yet available Thursday afternoon.
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