Trump mocked for shielding his ‘gold-plated midlife crisis’ with post-election order

President Donald Trump's newest effort to cement his White House makeover drew a wave of ridicule from critics who say it reeks of hypocrisy.

Trump on Thursday signed a proclamation aimed at locking the Oval Office and Cabinet Room into their redesigned states, the Associated Press reported. During the signing, Trump said the document would make both rooms "a landmark for the ages" and that any major future alterations would need Congress to sign off.

Critics were quick to note that Trump never sought lawmakers' blessing before tearing down the White House's East Wing to make way for his ballroom.

"The same man who tore down the East Wing now wants to lecture America about historic preservation," progressive commentator Alex Cole posted on X. "The hypocrisy is spectacular."

Cole went further in a separate post, arguing that Trump was guarding "his gold-plated midlife crisis" after Republicans "got demolished at the ballot box."

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) seized on the same contrast, declaring that voters had handed Republicans "a clear and massive repudiation of the harmful MAGA agenda."

"And this is what trump is focused on?" the congressman asked. "His furniture?"

Political scientist Norman Ornstein, who was a consultant for the show Veep, dismissed the move outright. "Of course it is bulls—," he wrote. "Any executive order can be altered by another executive order."

Attorney Jeffrey Evan Gold acknowledged the legal question remains unsettled but argued the next president has the implied power to undo it unless the Supreme Court steps in. "There is no way even this Court will save Trump's decor, which every new pres changes," he added.

University of California San Diego political science professor Branislav Slantchev mocked Trump for thinking he could protect his handiwork forever when he "bulldozes half of the White House without congressional permission."

Others reacted with disbelief. Author and activist Amy Siskind declared that Trump "has lost his natural mind," while progressive commentator Brian Tyler Cohen sarcastically thanked God that "someone is protecting the White House from being destroyed."