Maggie Haberman Roasts Trump Mar-a-Lago-izing White House Decor: ‘Gold-Like Substance Everywhere’

CNN commentator and New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman and anchor Kaitlan Collins roasted the decor in President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago-ized Oval Office, which is heavy on the “gold-like substance.”.

Trump went on a four-day swing through the Persian Gulf region this week with stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, which has been dogged by the controversy over his eager acceptance of a $400 million “flying palace” from Qatar to serve as Air Force One.

The trip has also drawn attention to Trump’s family businesses, and on Tuesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins and Haberman called out the “ethics” of those business ties.

But in an aside about the opulent surroundings on the trip, Trump’s glittery Oval Office decor — which Collins has noted previously— caught a stray:

COLLINS: Yes. I mean, just watching the President and the Crown Prince make their way through that Saudi Investment Forum today, and seeing MBS kind of give him this tour–

HABERMAN: Yes.

COLLINS: –show him these models of what he’s doing. It just did say, we always see world leaders come in and try to appeal to the President and what he likes. I mean, this isn’t new.

But just even looking at the room. And The New York Times had a great view of this up today, essentially saying, This isn’t Palm Beach, but it looks so much like Mar-a-Lago in different rooms that he’s in, and spaces that he’s comfortable in, and how he’s tried to remake the Oval Office, by putting more portraits and more gold–

HABERMAN: Yes.

COLLINS: –and just making it more in his liking.

HABERMAN: That’s right. Mar-a-Lago East was, I think, Jonathan Swan’s line. Jonathan is on the ground there. And it exactly captured it. I mean, if you look around the Oval Office, as you say, there is gold, or something covered in gold, a gold-like substance everywhere.

COLLINS: Yes.

Maggie Haberman, excellent reporting, as always. Thanks for joining us tonight.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.