The White House clapped back at the White Stripes front man Jack White after the famed rocker criticized President Donald Trump’s Oval Office makeover on Tuesday, calling the Grammy Award-winning musician a “washed up” and “has-been loser.”
Long a vocal critic of Trump, White took to social media Tuesday to criticize Trump’s redesign of the Oval Office, which under his administration has been adorned with gold moldings, fireplace mantels and figurines, calling it “vulgar" and “gaudy.” In response, White House spokesperson Steven Cheung took aim at White and his career in a comment to The Daily Beast.
“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 said.
“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.’”
White is not alone in his criticisms of Trump’s Oval Office makeover, with some critics viewing it as excessive and symbolic of autocratic tendencies, and others likening it to a lookalike of the Palace of Versailles or the palace of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
“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 Tuesday. “What an embarrassment to American history.”
Despite the White House’s assertion of White having a “stalled career,” the 12-time Grammy Award winning musician is set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this year as a member of the White Stripes, the Detroit-based rock duo whose albums have gone multi-platinum, a signifier that an album has sold more than two million units.
Trump’s redesign at the White House is now extending beyond the walls of the Oval Office, with plans underway to demolish the East Wing to make way for a $200 million ballroom.