Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has likened President Donald Trump’s gold-heavy White House renovations to the palaces of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, saying the changes reflect the president’s “narcissistic personality”.
Speaking to journalist Kara Swisher on her Pivot podcast Friday, Clinton recalled visiting Baghdad after Saddam Hussein’s fall, when she was a US senator, CNN reported. She said she had meetings in some of the former Iraqi leader’s palaces and found similarities with the changes now being made inside the White House.
“You know what? That’s a very—I was in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein. I was then a senator, and I had meetings in some of his palaces. They were quite reminiscent of what we are seeing in our own White House. It’s just insane,” Clinton said.
Asked by Swisher whether the changes were difficult for her to watch, Clinton said she found them “sad”, particularly because of what she saw as their excessive decoration.
‘It’s so tacky’: Clinton slams gold-heavy Oval Office makeover
“It’s sad to me. It’s sad that it’s so tacky, and it’s a reflection of his narcissistic personality and his need to feel important, including sticking gold embellishments all over the walls of the Oval Office,” she said.
Clinton also linked Trump’s focus on the White House interiors to his wider priorities, saying his attention appeared to be fixed on appearances rather than major policy challenges.
“This is a man who, his mind apparently goes to, ‘Where can I add more gold?’ instead of, ‘How do I get out of Iran without looking like the loser that I am?'”, CNN cited her as saying.
She went on to question Trump’s priorities on artificial intelligence, describing it as a serious threat to US security and the labour force, according to a report by Yahoo News. “How do I begin to, you know, deal with AI, which is a serious threat to our security, our labor force and so much else?” she said.
Trump has pursued extensive changes to the White House since returning to office in 2025. CNN reported that gold detailing has been added across the Oval Office and parts of the West Wing. His administration has also undertaken wider renovation projects, including the demolition of the East Wing for a proposed ballroom.
Clinton has long opposed Trump’s White House renovation plans
Clinton, who herself oversaw renovations to the White House Blue Room while serving as first lady, has repeatedly criticised the ballroom project. She said the issue was not the idea of having a ballroom but the way the project was being undertaken.
In October last year, shortly after the East Wing of the White House was made way for the president’s proposed ballroom, she posted saying, “It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it.”
“I’m not against the idea of a ballroom. I’m against this ballroom. I’m against the process that, well — the fact there was no process that created this, you know, carbuncle on the side of the White House, which I think is so unfortunate-looking,” Clinton said in the interview.
She also criticised other projects associated with Trump’s efforts to reshape Washington, reportedly including plans for a 250-foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery and a troubled effort to refurbish the National Mall’s reflecting pool.
Clinton said the problems surrounding the pool were another example of misplaced presidential attention. “It’s just another example of the absurd world in which we are living that you’ve got the president of the United States obsessing over a failed pool job,” she said, Yahoo News reported.
She added: “I mean, honestly, the guy is so out of it right now, unhinged, obsessed and focused on all the wrong things, you know. Maybe we should be happy he’s messing around with the Reflecting Pool … not starting another war somewhere else.”
White House defends renovations, hits back at Clinton
The White House responded by pointing to Clinton’s defeat to Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Spokesman Davis Ingle said: “Hillary Clinton never had the opportunity to decorate the Oval Office as president because she suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of President Trump, which she has never recovered from.”
Clinton, meanwhile, joked that she could take on the task of reversing Trump’s decorative changes after he leaves office. “Wouldn’t that be a good idea? Secretary of cleaning it up, fixing up,” she said.
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (File Photo/Enhanced using AI) 
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