Appointee wants to replace White House columns with the ones Trump prefers

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Sun Mar 15, 2026, 08:58 AM - Edit history (2)

Source: Washington Post

Appointee wants to replace White House columns with the ones Trump prefers

The head of a federal arts commission is proposing the more ornate Corinthian style for the nearly 200-year-old columns at the building's front entrance

Today at 5:00 a.m. EDT


The White House on Feb. 4. (Anna Rose Layden/For The Washington Post)

By Dan Diamond and Aaron Steckelberg

For nearly two centuries, the White House's main entrance -- framed by a row of graceful Ionic columns -- has been a signature image of the seat of American power. Now the Trump-appointed head of a federal arts commission is proposing to replace them with a more ornate style favored by President Donald Trump.

Those more decorative columns, a style known as Corinthian, are considered the most luxurious in classical architecture and appear on buildings such as the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court. They have long been deployed on Trump's properties, and the president has handpicked them for his planned White House ballroom, too.

Cook's proposal to overhaul the front entrance to the White House, known as the North Portico, reflects a common dynamic in Trump's Washington, where the president's deputies and allies often anticipate and implement his desires -- and frequently upend decades of tradition and norms in the process.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/15/white-house-columns-ionic-corinthian/

---

Hat tip for the three paragraphs of text, Joe.My.God.

https://www.joemygod.com/2026/03/trump-wants-new-ornate-columns-at-white-house/

He has a gift link too.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/15/white-house-columns-ionic-corinthian/?pwapi_tokeneyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzczNTQ3MjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzc0OTI5NTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NzM1NDcyMDAsImp0aSI6IjAxOWJmZDVjLWM4NTMtNGRmNi1iMmQ2LTg2MjlkYmY0N2M5NSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9wb2xpdGljcy8yMDI2LzAzLzE1L3doaXRlLWhvdXNlLWNvbHVtbnMtaW9uaWMtY29yaW50aGlhbi8ifQ.JWZ-ejsU1mZEmHe42Yo60nM0fpGN1xwZBJ8U8mdPpts&itidgfta

Which works if you give them an email address. Otherwise not.

[RockCreek]

1. Every one of these long-lasting architectural changes to the White House

Tells me that Krasnov has no intention of vacating.
(unless unintentionally in a coffin, as his age etc finally catches up with him)

[travelingthrulife]

10. He just wants to piss normal people off. He's a psychopath.

[LiberalLovinLug]

38. I think he's also keen on leaving his impression, literally, on America after he's gone

I have no doubt that he will really push for his face on Mount Rushmore before his term ends as well

[mdbl]

42. He's just pissing all over everything so it smells forever.

[hlthe2b]

2. ...

Is there nothing we can do to stop him from destroying our entire heritage?

[Rhiannon12866]

3. The White House is NOT his house! It's The People's House which means it belongs to the people of the U.S.

Which means he's only there for four years - or less - and then will be forced to vacate, just like John Adams and every other short term inhabitant since.

[Eugene]

4. Corinthian columns -- like Versailles?

Turning the White House into a gaudy knock-off of a royal palace one step at a time.

[PatSeg]

6. Or make it look like one of his gaudy casinos

[SergeStorms]

11. That all went bankrupt.....

just like his soul.

[PatSeg]

22. And now he's doing to the country

what he did to his casinos and all his other failed businesses.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Every day he proves to me there is no god who answers prayers and sides with

moral goodness.

[twodogsbarking]

7. And gargoyles that look like Melaaaaaaniaaaaaaaah, or Ivaaaaanka.

[2MuchNoise]

9. Gargoyles with Mar-a-Lago face.

[Goonch]

8. ;-{)....

[LymphocyteLover]

15. if only!

[Vinca]

12. NO! Leave the place alone! It looks like a 19th century brothel on the inside and we don't want that on the outside!

[Delarage]

13. Because that's what Americans are worried about

Imagine if Biden ignored questions about raping children, American casualties in a war, and the price of eggs....to focus on his palace.

[LymphocyteLover]

14. oh for GOD'S SAKE!!! Someone please tell the giant baby NO!

[GiqueCee]

18. Fuggeddaboutit...

... Republicans have control, and they're in on it... for now. But who on the Righteous Side of the Aisle will pick up the gauntlet and say, "Bring it, motherfuckers! but bring your own body bags, 'cause that's what you're going home in!" Figuratively speaking, of course. Heh, heh, heh.
These are dire circumstances, and the public's perception is that those at the top aren't taking this anywhere near seriously enough. And there may be some conflicting loyalties there, too.

[LSparkle]

16. Wasn't it the British who tried to 🔥 the place once?

Just asking ... we may need help again to raze this monstrosity.

[GiqueCee]

19. Yep...

... Google the War of 1812.

[Lonestarblue]

17. When removing the columns, the contractor will be told to "accidentally" destroy the whole White House.

Trump hates everything about this country except his ability to grift and enrich himself at our expense.

[GiqueCee]

20. Yeah, Ionic columns are too elegant...

... and Doric columns are fluted, too, but lack the gaudy capitals. Corinthians got both. But where will he but the cheesy gold-painted gew-gaws that adorn the interior everywhere there's a naked space?

[xocetaceans]

21. Purportedly, there is a public meeting coming up on 19 March 2026. One must attend in person to comment, it seems.

Meeting Status

The next Commission of Fine Arts meeting, scheduled for 19 March, will be held in person only at the Commission's offices in the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Suite 312, Washington, D.C. All applicants and all members of the public wishing to speak at the meeting must attend in person. For the latest information and to register to view the meeting stream online, click here.

Agency Operations & Virtual Meetings

Public Meetings

Commission of Fine Arts (CFA)
19 March 2026 — The next public meeting of the CFA, scheduled for 19 March 2026, will be held in person only at the Commission's offices in the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Suite 312, Washington, D.C. To register to view the meeting stream online, click here.

...

https://www.cfa.gov/node/41973

Here is the Trump appointee who seems to favor that change to the White House:

Rodney Mims Cook, Jr.
CFA Service: 2021–2022, 2026–present; Vice Chairman, 2021; Chairman, 2026–present

Rodney Mims Cook, Jr. is founder and president of the National Monuments Foundation, an organization focused on the development of new civic and historic projects around the world, new construction and restoration, and national symbols particularly. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University, a scholar of the American Academy in Rome, and a founding trustee of the Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture. He choreographed the design and construction of the Millennium Gate Museum in Atlanta and coordinated the design competition and construction of the Prince of Wales’s World Athletes Monument for Atlanta’s 1996 Olympic Games. He designed the neo-Italian Newington Cropsey Museum of Art in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York; he was co-designer of a prize-winning entry in the National Civic Art Society competition for the Dwight D. Eisenhower National Memorial; he choreographed the collaboration of Handshouse Studios with the French Government to restore the spire of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris; and he co-sponsored Sabin Howard with WWI Commissioner Monique Seefried for the monumental bas-relief at the World War I Memorial in Washington. His current projects include the development of eighteen monuments celebrating 300 years of Georgia peacemakers for the now completed Rodney Cook Sr. Peace Park, formerly Mims Park, a rebuilt 19th-century Olmsted-designed park in Atlanta, originally built by his family. The City of Atlanta renamed it after his father, a member of the Georgia House of Representatives for 20 years who worked with Dr. Martin Luther King to keep the city peaceful. He is advising the Adams Family Memorial Commission on the site selection and design for a memorial library in Washington, D.C., dedicated to Presidents John and John Quincy Adams and their families.

Cook is a frequent speaker on urbanism, and has presented at the “Master Plan for 21st Century Havana” Conference in 2015; the “Museum of the 21st Century and New Media Technologies” at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2017; the Congress for the New Urbanism’s “Cities and the Future of Global Urbanism on Land and Sea” at Burning Man in 2019; and at the 2025 ceremonies in Paris honoring those who led the work to restore the iconic Cathedral of Notre Dame. He is a founding board member of the Institute for Classical Architecture and Art and a charter signer of the Congress for the New Urbanism. He currently serves on the boards of Hearst Castle Preservation Foundation, the Massachusetts Historical Society–Adams Family Papers, Atomic6 Technology, the National Monuments Foundation, and the Shin Dae-yong Global Peace Institute; he is an emeritus board member of the Institute for Classical Architecture and Art, Fox Theatre Incorporated of Atlanta, and the Savannah College of Art and Design. He previously served as a member of the Commission from 2021 to 2022, including as vice chairman in 2021.

https://www.cfa.gov/about-cfa/who-we-are/rodney-mims-cook-jr

Hopefully, people in the DC area are able to attend that meeting to make public comments on Cook's idiotically tasteless idea to alter the White House.

[littlemissmartypants]

33. 📌 Thanks so much for sharing this. ❤️

[xocetaceans]

41. You're welcome. n/t

[dweller]

23. Guarantee that Corinthian column

Idea will change again , and they will eventually settle on massive T’s for columns




😖



✌🏻

[littlemissmartypants]

34. Snort. ❤️😎👋

[Blue Dotty]

44. One Corinthians, Two Corinthians? n/t

[Bengus81]

24. Another EPSTEIN FILES distraction. Glad the Iranians are hitting Trump hard on Epstein

in posts. They should have done that weeks ago.

[AllaN01Bear]

30. ding ! this.

Another EPSTEIN FILES distraction.

[Bayard]

25. trump's war on class continues...

[flashman13]

26. WTF! Does he want to paint them gold too?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

31. Gold leaf. NT

[flvegan]

27. Shaped like a young teen girl?

Maybe they'll use McTacoTits' drawing on Epstein's birthday card.

Epstein, who by the way, didn't kill himself.

[LudwigPastorius]

28. For the love of all that's holy, make it stop.

[AllaN01Bear]

29. oh come on !!!!!!!

[John1956PA]

32. . . .

[littlemissmartypants]

35. FDT

[snot]

36. Ok I'm going to vent a bit here:

"vulger, gaudy, pretentious, ostentatious, arrogant, stupid, regressive, wasteful, megaloegomaniacal, narcissistic...."

And that's just re- aesthetic matters.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

37. The White House's original architect picked the Ionic columns.

trump's proposed columns are horrible. After trump dies or leaves office, these renovations including the oval office and if trump lives that long the ball room need to be torn down and restored. The East wing needs to be restored

Link to tweet

[trusty elf]

39. Makes me LIVID. F#CK DRUMPF ! ! ! !

[GiqueCee]

40. The Orange Skidmark...

...is no different, and certainly no better, than the witless shitgibbons that smeared their own excrement all over the walls of the capitol. Probably licked their fingers afterward.
There must be laws against desecrating national monuments, and the White House isn't his to fuck with. God damn his evil ass.

[GiqueCee]

43. It is my considered opinion...

... that the newly appointed Mr. Cook should be replaced by an effigy of Saint Sebastian. Or maybe Cook should just stand in for the Saint. Y'know, like his stunt double. But with real arrows.