WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Turns out Donald Trump gauges his esteem for presidential predecessors by how well their portraits fit into his White House redecorating scheme. Or sometimes how well the frames around those portraits do.
鈥淚鈥檓 a frame person," Trump said Tuesday during a meeting with his Cabinet. 鈥淪ometimes I like frames more than I like the pictures.鈥
Trump wrapped up a 90-plus-minute session by explaining how he personally worked to redecorate the White House's Cabinet Room, seeming to take real joy in choosing which portraits were hung. The president also said he helped choose the room's drapes and polled those present about whether he should repaint the room in gold leaf. (Cabinet members think he should.)
鈥淚 actually spent time in the vaults. The vaults are where we have a lot of great pictures and artwork. And I picked it all myself," Trump said. 鈥淚鈥檓 very proud of it.鈥
The president said that meant 鈥渁 lot of time, effort鈥 and 鈥渧ery little money.鈥 And he even recounted having gone to the State Department and told its head, , to have a grandfather clock there moved to the White House. That's despite there not being any record of Trump having paid a public visit to the State Department during Rubio's tenure.
Trump also pointed out each portrait and shared what he thought of each past president depicted. He started by indicating 鈥渢he great " and went from there 鈥 renewing his frequent praise for and getting in a dig about how once offered donors overnight stays in the Lincoln bedroom in exchange for campaign contributions.
Here's what Trump said about some of his other presidential predecessors:
James K. Polk (1845-49):
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a gentleman named 鈥 and we call him 鈥 . He was sort of a real-estate guy. He was 鈥 people don鈥檛 realize 鈥 he was a one-termer. But he was a very good president. But, and I鈥檓 not sure I should be doing this, he actually gave us the state of California."
Then Trump revealed that his choice of Polk's picture might have had more do with the portrait's frame being almost the same size as the frame surrounding Jackson's portrait, which he suggested was especially aesthetically pleasing: 鈥淧olk is actually a very good president who鈥檚 got the same frame that I needed, OK."
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-61):
"A very underrated president. Built the Interstate (Highway) System. And he was the toughest president, I guess, until we came along. But I don鈥檛 mind giving up that crown, because, I don鈥檛 want to be too tough on it. But we want to be humane. But he was the toughest president on immigration. He was very strong at the borders. Very, very strong. And, sometimes you can be too strong. He was strong at the borders and, during a certain period of time, there was so strong that almost every . And we have to remember that. We have to work together. We have to remember that. But he was a very good president, and a very good general and a very good president and I thought he deserved a position somewhere on this floor."
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-45):
鈥淗e was not a Republican, to put it mildly. But he was, you know, a four-termer. He was . And, if you notice, we have a lot of ramps outside. You have a ramp. People say, 鈥業t鈥檚 an unusual place for a ramp.' It was because of him. He was wheelchair bound. But he was an amazing man.鈥
Abraham Lincoln (1861-65):
鈥淥ver there is 鈥楬onest鈥 . And that picture was in his, ugh, in his bedroom. And we thought this would be a very important place because this is where wars are ended. I鈥檓 not going to say wars are declared. I鈥檓 going to say wars are ended. OK? We'll be positive. And, that鈥檚 the picture of Abe Lincoln from his bedroom, sat in the bedroom for many, many years. That was his favorite picture of himself. And the Lincoln Bedroom's very famous. You remember when Bill Clinton had it and he rented it out to people. We don't do that.鈥
John Adams (1797-1801):
鈥淭hey were the first occupants of the White House. 1800. And John Quincy Adams, Mrs. Adams, they were the first occupants. So we have them looking at each other and, in between their stares is Abraham Lincoln trying to make peace.鈥
(Trump is correct that , the nation's second president, and his wife , were the first first couple to move into the White House in 1800. But he was mistaken about , who was John and Abigail's son and the sixth president. He served from 1825 to 1829).
William McKinley (1897-1901):
鈥淢cKinley was a great president who never got credit. In fact, they changed the name of and I changed it back because he should have been 鈥 the people of Ohio, he was the governor of Ohio 鈥 the people of Ohio were very happy when I did that. I heard they were very insulted. They took the name of Mount McKinley off. That was done by Obama a little while ago and I had to change it back. I changed it back. He actually was a great president. He was a president. He was the tariff, the most, I guess since me 鈥 I think I'm gonna outdo him 鈥 but he was a . He believed that other countries should pay for the privilege of coming into our country and taking our jobs and taking our treasure. That鈥檚 the way he explained it. They took our jobs and they took our treasure. And for that he should pay. And he made them pay. And he built a tremendous fortune.鈥
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Will Weissert covers the White House for The Associated Press.
