Glenn Beck said Donald Trump revealed to him the reason for adding a lot of gold to the Oval Office—and it apparently goes beyond the president’s personal taste.
On a recent episode of The Glenn Beck Program, the conservative commentator recalled being with Trump, 79, in the Oval Office, which looks more like the Trump Tower penthouse than it ever has before.
“It’s not because he likes gold,” Beck claimed. “He’s doing it to project power and wealth.”
“He’s gilding everything, and it’s not necessarily my favorite look,” Beck, 61, said Tuesday. “He comes in and he says, ‘You know, I’m doing all this. You see all the gold?… It’s so important. These foreign leaders—they all come from palaces, and they don’t understand.’”
Trump’s remodeling of the Oval Office is unprecedented in the amount of gold on display. / SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images
“‘And I know the White House is different, America is different, but they understand power in a different way,’” Beck said Trump told him and his wife, Tania. “‘They’re coming from these old countries and these big buildings and these palaces… It is important for us to project power.’”
Beck added: “And that is why he’s doing this. It’s not because he likes gold. He’s doing it to project power and wealth… He knows the language they speak and not just body language or spoken language. That’s what protocol is all about. It all means something.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a Daily Beast inquiry about Beck’s comments.
The Oval Office, of course, isn’t the only part of the White House that Trump is set on revamping with that theme in mind.
The entire East Wing has been demolished for the construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom—designs for which show plenty of gold decor.
The ballroom, which reportedly will be named after Trump, is expected to cost $300 million—at the moment, at least. / JIM WATSON / AFP via Getty Images
The controversial $300 million endeavor has been funded by defense contractors, cryptocurrency investors and tech giants—people reportedly seeking the Trump administration’s help with mergers, contracts and other business moves.
