Donald Trump has signed an executive order to preserve his gold-covered Oval Office as a national monument.

The action, his first since the Republican Party’s bruising midterm elections, will prevent his successors from making certain changes to the White House room.

The order follows a row with Barack Obama, who joked that Mr Trump’s renovations made the Oval Office looked like “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory”.

Sitting behind the Resolute Desk on Thursday, Mr Trump said: “We’re making it a national monument, and it will not be allowed to be touched by anybody, destroyed, ripped down by stupid people, in order to build something in a slightly different shape.

“If anyone ever decides to come and start knocking down walls, you’ll call me wherever I may be, and I will come back here and I will make sure it never happens.”

Despite Mr Trump’s remarks, the language in the order does not “restrict the president’s authority to redecorate the monument, select furnishings, or make ordinary operational and security modifications that do not substantially impair the monument’s historic structure or architectural character”.

The entire White House is designated as a National Historic Landmark, which is intended to prevent sudden changes to the building, but American presidents have the power to make some changes.

It was the second successive day Mr Trump delivered remarks on his pet construction projects in Washington, despite the midterm setback for his Republican Party.

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Mr Trump has transformed the Oval Office with accents, including a gold trim to the crown moulding, covered the presidential seal and stars surrounding it with gold paint and created a gallery wall with gold-framed pictures of former presidents.

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