Melania Trump and the renovation of the White House: steep bill, divisive work
Almost two months after leaving the White House, it's time to take stock for Melania Trump. The work she has undertaken is expensive and not universally accepted.
Like all American First Ladies, Melania Trump tried to leave her mark on the White House, through expensive renovations. "Melania Trump has mainly focused on historic preservation and has taken on beauty and historical elements," White House Historical president Stewart McLaurin, who funds between $ 1 million and $ 2 million each, told the Washington Post. year at the White House. During Donald Trump's tenure, a dozen projects initiated by Melania Trump were paid for by the association. Its renovation of the gardens did not meet with the approval of certain traditionalists and certain expenses made cringe.
200,000 dollars, or 168,000 euros, would have been disbursed for the renovation of the carpet of the diplomatic reception hall, as for the bronze sculpture by Noguchi dating from 1962, the House's first work of art of Asian origin. Blanche, whom she had installed last November, just a few months before her husband left the presidential residence. But it was the upholstery and gilding of the Bellangé suite that cost the most. Billed at $ 800,000, or nearly 670,000 euros, this operation launched under Obama ended during Trump's mandate in 2018. The most expensive work requested by Melania Trump concerned the replacement of the fabric of the red room. “The whole room has been padded to restore the luster of the original red,” said Stewart McLaurin of the $ 300,000, or nearly € 250,000, operation to restore the red and gold silk walls. .
"It was not a glamorous project"
All the operations ordered by Melania Trump do not make you dream, such as the renovation of the thirty wooden doors for 90,000 dollars, or nearly 75,000 euros. “It was not a glamorous project. But it was necessary to keep the White House at its best, "admitted the president of the association. Melania Trump also used $ 100,000, or nearly 85,000 euros, made available to her to renovate the elevator that leads to the private apartments, which is therefore intended for her own use and not for the general interest of Americans. An attitude denounced by presidential historian Andersen Brower.
"I think with her experience as a model and in the fashion industry in New York, she was more concerned with her own appearance than with the renovation of the White House," commented in The Philadelphia Inquirer the specialist who believes that Donald Trump's wife was inspired by Jackie Kennedy in her role as First Lady, even though she had caused a scandal by having roses pulled up that she had planted. According to Andersen Brower, Melania Trump would have left his leg less in the White House than Laura Bush and Michelle Obama.
