Washington, March 11 – President Donald Trump used an interview on the All-In Podcast from the Oval Office to showcase his redesign of the White House, defend his changes to the Rose Garden, announce plans for a new ballroom, and quickly pivot to a broader pitch on tariffs, artificial intelligence, and manufacturing.
Referring to it as the "new and improved Oval Office," Trump said he had personally selected the paintings now hanging in the room, many of which were taken from the White House vaults.
"I chose them all," he said, pointing to portraits of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan.
Trump said that some of the works had remained in storage for decades. "They were in the vaults for many – over 100 years," he said.
He also said that his team had added "a lot of 24-karat gold" around the fireplace and upgraded the interiors, including replacing older tile flooring with "large slabs of white marble."
The President also defended the changes to the Rose Garden, saying that the earlier grassy layout was impractical for events and press appearances. "We put down beautiful stone, white stone, and now we can have all sorts of things," he said.
Referring to a recent visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump said that the old setup created problems during a press conference because "the women with their high heels were – it wasn't a pretty picture. It was wet."
Prime Minister Modi visited the White House in February 2025, in the first 30 days of his second term. The two leaders had a joint press conference in the Rose Garden in June 2017, during Trump's first term.
"For 150 years, they wanted a ballroom at the White House," he said, arguing that major state events should no longer have to rely on tents on the lawn. When asked when construction would begin, he replied: "A couple of years. Starting in about two weeks."
On economics, Trump said that the United States was benefiting from unprecedented tariff revenue. "We're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of tariffs," he said. "The money is coming in at levels that nobody ever thought possible."
He linked this claim to a broader case for his economic agenda, saying that AI investment, domestic manufacturing, and energy expansion were driving growth. "We have a country that's doing really well, and leading in AI is an honor," Trump said. He added that data and AI infrastructure developers were being allowed to build their own power facilities because "you can't go into the old grid."
Trump also said that auto and chip manufacturing were returning to the United States because companies "don't want to pay tariffs."
Referring to large-scale industrial investment, he said: "When these plants start opening, you know, we have a lot of construction jobs building. But when these plants that you guys are so in love with start opening, nobody's ever seen plants like this."
Ideas for expanding the White House are not new, but structural changes to the executive mansion and its grounds have often drawn close public scrutiny because of the building's historical and political significance.
Trump's remarks blended this visual renovation pitch with his broader effort to frame tariffs, energy, and AI as central to his second-term economic message.