Trump’s $200 Million Gold-Plated Renovation Draws Backlash Amid Deep Cuts to Social Programs
President Donald Trump’s sweeping White House renovation plans are drawing outrage after reports revealed that portions of the project include gold-plating architectural features — all while his administration moves forward with major cuts to food aid, health care, and cancer research funding.
The nine-figure makeover, first detailed on July 31, includes a $200 million (£150 million) proposal to construct a new, lavish ballroom. According to the administration’s announcement, the White House “is one of the most beautiful and historic buildings in the world” but “currently unable to host major functions honoring world leaders and other countries without having to install a large and unsightly tent approximately 100 yards away from the main building entrance.”
CNN reports that the ballroom project comes just weeks after the 79-year-old president began adding ornate gold accents to various rooms — “gold piece after gold piece” — including tiny gilded cherubs above the Oval Office doorway. White House sources told journalist Kevin Liptak that the finishes resemble those in Trump’s private clubs, with some details directly imported from Mar-a-Lago.
Critics quickly seized on the optics. On social media, many contrasted the opulent upgrades with the administration’s budget cuts. “Trump is gold-plating everything in the White House while cutting cancer research and Meals on Wheels,” one user wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Another put it bluntly: “Explain to me like I’m a starving child with cancer why you’re covering the White House in gold while cutting SNAP benefits for poor, hungry children.”
Others compared the project to authoritarian excess. “This is f—ing real,” another post read. “They are throwing kids off school meals and Medicaid and putting real gold all over the White House as if Saddam Hussein was president.”
“Whatever your politics,” one critic wrote, “all the gold in the White House is disgusting. America doesn’t do this. We don’t have Saddam palaces. Or kings. We just don’t. Well, we didn’t use to.”
The backlash intensified after reports from CNBC and The New York Times highlighted the scope of the administration’s proposed cuts. The Republican “big beautiful” reconciliation package includes substantial reductions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), affecting an estimated 22.3 million families. This would be the largest reduction to the program since its creation in 1939 during the Great Depression.
Additional rollbacks target Medicaid, school meal programs, and cancer research funding — policies critics say stand in stark contrast to the multimillion-dollar White House beautification. “Trump is now remodeling the Oval Office to cover it in gold after ordering a $200 million golden ballroom — all after cutting health care for 17 million Americans and taking food away from hungry children,” one viral post summarized.
Despite the uproar, the administration has defended the renovation as a long-term investment in the White House’s functionality and prestige, insisting that major upgrades are overdue. But with millions of Americans set to lose basic food and health benefits, Trump’s golden makeover has become a symbol for critics of misplaced priorities and presidential excess.
