A replica Oval Office near the White House just got a new Trump makeover. Gold flourishes abound

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s glitzier. And there’s way more gold.

The People’s House museum exhibit has overhauled its replica Oval Office for visitors to experience President Donald Trump's second-term design choices.

Gleaming vases, golden-hued swirling onlays, two dozen portraits in heavy gilded frames and knickknacks crowding nearly every available surface: the same rococo flourishes that Trump has installed in the world’s most famous workspace have been recreated down to each wall appliqué in a museum just up Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.

“As political as the Oval Office is, it really is also the office of the American people,” said Luke Boorady, managing director of The People’s House: A White House Experience. “And we want visitors who come here to feel more connected to this space.”

Public tours of the White House do not include the West Wing. So the White House Historical Association set about recreating the Oval Office, opening the exhibit in September 2024. It is the same size as the real one, and visitors often marvel at how small it feels.

A team of specialized designers has been making over the exhibit, visiting Trump's Oval Office while the Republican president was away. Experts in North Carolina worked to recreate Trump's many wall appliqués, while one from Indianapolis handled 3D scanning and printing of other specialized objects. California frame-makers did carving by hand for the gold frames of Trump's chosen 24 portraits, and teams from Canada and Virginia worked on replicas of vases and other tabletop pieces, Boorady said.

There are also two mirrors and a copy of the Declaration of Independence, just like in Trump's actual office.

A real estate developer before he became a politician, Trump has revamped the White House to his extravagant tastes as part of his push to leave his mark on the nation's capital while he is still in office.

When asked by Time magazine last week what he would miss most about the White House after he leaves, Trump said, “This beautiful room that nobody should be allowed to rip down. The Oval Office.” He said he had asked his chief of staff to make his altered office “a federal landmark.”

In addition to filling the Oval Office with bling, Trump paved over the lawn near the Rose Garden to build a patio space reminiscent of the one at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. He installed a row of presidential portraits along the colonnade between the White House residence and the West Wing.

He erected towering flagpoles on the North and South lawns, renovated the Palm Room and the bathroom that is part of the famous Lincoln Bedroom and ordered restoration work of the North Portico's front columns.

But Trump seems proudest of the $400 million ballroom that he is building after ordering that the East Wing be demolished. "It relaxes me, actually,” the president said about the ballroom project during an unrelated event last week.

Trump's sense of ownership of the White House is now such that while recently defending his attempt to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico from its grounds, the president had a momentary slip of the tongue. "I don’t have to let them into my — into the people’s house,” he said.

When the White House Historical Association first opened its Oval Office duplicate, it mirrored Democratic President Joe Biden's design. After the 2024 election, the association updated the exhibit to match Trump's first-term style.

Last week, a crew of 25 people worked from early Monday through late Friday to get the second-term transformation ready, making the finishing touches on Saturday.

Boorady said Biden was the first president to hang double layers of portraits over the Oval Office fireplace. Trump has expanded that all around the room, stacking the walls with portraits including those of George Washington, Andrew Jackson and Benjamin Franklin.

In the real Oval Office, the colors are made more brilliant by using gilded gold leaf. In the replica, crews used a paint solution. Boorady said they did not use gold leaf to protect against chipping or other wear-and-tear from visitors moving through the area.

Trump was once spotted using superglue to try to affix gold ornaments to the Oval Office fireplace, according to Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan in their book “Regime Change.”

But no superglue was needed in the replica office. Crews used laser levels and temporary adhesive to fix items to the walls, checking their work for accuracy against renderings of the actual office before nailing many adornments to the walls.

There are many things in Trump's Oval Office that have stood the test of time: a beige-patterned rug from the Ronald Reagan era, gold draperies from Bill Clinton’s tenure, and couches and chairs from the George W. Bush White House.

Of course there is a copy of the Resolute Desk. Visitors to the People's House are allowed to sit in the chairs and behind the replicated desk, which Trump and most presidents have used since it was gifted to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880.

The White House Historical Association declined to say how much remaking the replica Oval Office cost. The organization, created in 1961 by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, receives no government funding, and raises money through private donations and sales of retail merchandise.

Trump briefly stopped by its gift shop during an unannounced visit to the People's House in August 2025. Asked whether Trump would come for a personal peek at his newly replicated workspace, Boorady replied, “I don't know” before adding that he is "always welcome.”

A replica of President Donald Trump's Oval Office is updated to the current decor by workers at "The People's House: A White House Experience," in Washington, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Under the direction of Managing Director Luke Boorady, a replica of President Donald Trump's Oval Office is updated to the current decor by at "The People's House: A White House Experience," in Washington, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

A replica of President Donald Trump's Oval Office is updated to the current decor by workers at "The People's House: A White House Experience," in Washington, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

A replica of President Donald Trump's Oval Office is updated to the current decor by workers at "The People's House: A White House Experience," in Washington, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

A replica of President Donald Trump's Oval Office is updated to the current decor by workers at "The People's House: A White House Experience," in Washington, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Brazilians are voting Sunday in a pivotal presidential election dominated by incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his ideological opposite, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro.

Preelection polls suggested both have a chance of winning outright, but if neither gets a majority of the vote, a runoff will be held on Oct. 25.

Nearly 159 million Brazilians are eligible to vote in Latin America’s largest economy. Bolsonaro is an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump and the son of ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro, whom Lula defeated four years ago.

Here's the latest:

Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro has voted in his home state of Rio de Janeiro.

“Brazil needs change, Brazil can’t stand so much suffering,” said Bolsonaro, who arrived at around 8:10 a.m. local time to vote in a school.

He was dressed in a light yellow shirt featuring a “22” sticker, corresponding to the number that Brazilians must punch in to electronic voting machines if voting for him.

“I am more than prepared to preside this country to give back to Brazilians the right to dream,” he told journalists.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government sees a series of recent U.S. measures — including tariffs and the decision to classify Brazil’s biggest drug-trafficking groups as foreign terrorist organizations — as attempts to tip the scale in Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro’s favor, an accusation that the Trump administration has denied.

A victory by Bolsonaro would mean Brazil would join Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru in electing Trump-friendly governments in recent years.

Lula has made Brazil’s sovereignty a major campaign issue. In the days before the election, his team launched a Portuguese version of the Bad Bunny song, “Lo que le paso a Hawaii,” that uses the U.S. colonization of Hawaii as a cautionary tale.

Brazilian voters prepare number-heavy lists to remember their candidates’ numbers and at the ballot box, punch in the corresponding digits. Brazilian authorities adopted electronic voting machines in the 1990s to tackle longstanding fraud.

In earlier elections, ballot boxes were stuffed or stolen, and individual votes were routinely falsified, according to Brazil’s electoral authority. Now, results are reported mere hours after polls close.

In the lead-up to the 2022 vote, Jair Bolsonaro repeatedly cast unfounded doubts on Brazil’s electronic voting system. No significant fraud has ever been detected.

Alongside regional heavyweights like U.S. President Donald Trump and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, 80-year-old Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stands among the oldest leaders in the Americas.

If Lula achieves an outright victory against 45-year-old Flávio Bolsonaro, he will cement a historic milestone, becoming the oldest man ever elected to lead the South American nation.

He says he wants to live to be 120. He tried to ease concerns by posting workout videos to attempt to convince voters that age is just a number.

Voting has started in Brazil's high-stakes presidential election, pitting the two main candidates, incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his ideological opposite, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, against each other.

Almost 159 million Brazilians are eligible to vote in this tense political showdown.

Brazilians will also elect 27 state governors, members of state legislatures, all 513 federal members of the lower house of congress and 54 of the country’s 81 senators in Sunday’s vote.

Opposition presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro waves to supporters during a campaign rally a day ahead of the country's general election, in Campo Grande, Rio de Janeiro state, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, waves a Brazilian and Sao Paulo state flags during a campaign rally a day ahead of the country's general election in Sao Paulo, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Supporters of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, display a large-headed effigy of presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro with a message in Portuguese that reads "Traitor of Brazil," during a campaign event at central bus station in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

A supporter of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, holds a sign that reads "Lula, cleanse your soul, Brazil" during a campaign event at central bus station in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)