Jack White has shared his views on the gilding of the White House. The musician, who opened a bespoke upholstery shop in Detroit in the mid-1990s before launching his music career and has always had a keen eye for visual aesthetics, criticized Donald Trump’s gold-plated makeover of the People’s House in a candid Instagram post on Tuesday (Aug. 19).
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“Look at how disgusting Trump has transformed the historic White House. It’s now a vulgar, gold-leafed and gaudy, professional wrestler’s dressing room,” White said of the makeover Trump has rolled out for the White House, which includes all-gold-everything in the Oval Office. “Can’t wait for the UFC match on the front lawn too; he’s almost fully achieved the movie Idiocracy,” White added in reference to Trump’s plans to hold an ultimate fighting match on the White House grounds next year and the beloved 2006 Mike Judge movie satire of a world where anti-intellectual, lowest-common-denominator dolts inherit the Earth. “Look at his disgusting taste; would you even buy a used car from this conman, let alone give him the nuclear codes?” White asked.
In a clever side slam, White tagged Trump with a link to professional wrestling legend “Nature Boy” Ric Flair’s Instagram feed in the post, where he also criticized many ways the president is abrogating norms by profiting from his second tenure in office. “A gold-plated Trump Bible would look perfect up on that mantle with a pair of Trump shoes on either side wouldn’t it?” White wrote. “What an embarrassment to American history. Also pictured in this photograph is a REAL leader of a nation in a black suit.” The post featured a photo of Trump meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week in the dizzyingly filigreed Oval Office.
In keeping with the wrestling metaphor, White House communications director Steven Cheung attempted his own smackdown of the 12-time Grammy-winning rocker who is slated to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the White Stripes in November. “Jack White is a washed-up, has-been loser posting drivel on social media because he clearly has ample time on his hands due to his stalled career,” Cheung told The Daily Beast. “It’s apparent he’s been masquerading as a real artist because he fails to appreciate and quite frankly disrespects the splendor and significance of the Oval Office inside of ‘The People’s House.’” At press time it appeared White had not responded to Cheung’s comments.
In May, photo editor and creative consultant Emily Keegin wrote an essay in The New York Times entitled “Trump’s Oval Office is a Gilded Rococo Nightmare. Help,” where she noted that in 2017 journalist Peter York referred to Trump’s shiny aesthetic as “dictator chic,” likening the former reality TV star’s New York penthouse style to that of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s opulent, garish mansions. In her commentary, Keegin described the 14K White House redesign as “a parade of golden objects that march across the mantel, relegating traditional Swedish ivy to a greenhouse. Gilded Rococo wall appliqués, nearly identical to those at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, are stuck to the fireplace and office walls with the same level of aesthetic consideration a child gives her doll’s face before covering it in nail polish.”
Check out White’s post here.
