By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he has renovated the Lincoln Bedroom’s bathroom, putting his latest stamp on the White House after demolishing the East Wing, paving over the Rose Garden and decorating the Oval Office in gold.
Trump, who has drawn criticism from preservationists and Democrats for adding a Mar-a-Lago-style sheen to the historic mansion, unveiled the remodeled white-and-black-marbled bathroom via social media.
“I renovated the Lincoln Bathroom in the White House. It was renovated in the 1940s in an art deco green tile style, which was totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era,” Trump said in his post, which included photos of the bathroom before and after the renovation.
“I did it in black and white polished Statuary marble,” he said. “This was very appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln and, in fact, could be the marble that was originally there!”
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about whether the bathroom project had undergone any formal design or approval process.
TRUMP PLANNING BALLROOM
Trump’s abrupt demolition of the East Wing this month to make way for a 90,000-square-foot (8,360-square-metre) ballroom has been criticized for not first going through a proper review. The White House has said it would submit plans for the ballroom construction for review by the National Capital Planning Commission, which is chaired by Trump’s staff secretary.
While presidents over the decades have remodeled rooms in their living space, Trump, a former New York real estate tycoon, has sought to remake the White House with particular gusto.
Since taking office in January, Trump has put gold adornments and statuettes in the Oval Office, in a style he prefers. The grass in the Rose Garden was dug up and paved over with white stone.
Portraits of Trump have been hung throughout the property, and giant American flags erected on new flagpoles on the north and south lawns.
The green-tiled Lincoln bathroom dated back to a White House renovation conducted by then-President Harry Truman in the 1950s, according to a Washington Post article from 2007.
At the time, then-President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush undertook a renovation of the Lincoln Bedroom, which Lincoln used as an office. The Post article describing the Bush renovation said they had left alone the “well-preserved” bathroom.
(Reporting By Steve HollandAdditional reporting by Nandita BoseEditing by Colleen Jenkins and Rod Nickel)
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