President Donald Trump has made his mark on the White House in many ways — including the massive ballroom construction project and the several gold touches he’s added throughout the West Wing.

Fresh off a midterm election defeat, Trump signed a proclamation Thursday aiming to prevent future presidents from making major changes to the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room.

“We’ve had tremendous victory in this office,” Trump said. “So we’re making it a national monument, and it will not be allowed to be touched by anybody, destroyed, ripped down by stupid people, in order to build something in a slightly different shape.”

The proclamation designates the Oval Office, the outer Oval Office and the Cabinet Room as a national monument, which Trump said will make them “impossible to knock down and change in any meaningful way.”

Trump said the interior of the Cabinet Room, which serves as a meeting room for the president and his top advisers, is “pretty much the same” as before, but he also said it has been “substantially upgraded” and that he added new chandeliers.

Trump also said “no major modification” will take place to the Cabinet Room or Oval Office “without the approval of Congress.”

The president indicated that the proclamation he signed declaring the rooms national monuments would have to be sent to Congress to be ratified. 

“So we’re going to be declaring it a national monument, and we’re going to send it over to Congress, have it ratified,” he said.

Asked by a reporter asked whether a future president could remove the gold accents that the president has hung in the Oval Office, Trump indicated that a future leader could, but “very carefully.” 

In October 2025, Trump himself made major structural changes to the White House, tearing down the East Wing with little notice or oversight, as part of the plan to build the White House ballroom. 

Construction has continued since then, drastically changing the White House grounds. On Wednesday, speaking publicly for the first time following the GOP’s midterm losses, Trump touted the ballroom project as he invited reporters to the construction site to witness the raising of the final beam.

At the Wednesday event, Trump acknowledged the criticism he has received for focusing his attention on the White House projects.

“And you know, when I get criticized, like, ‘Why are you working on the White House?’ I’m doing it because the White House is the ultimate symbol of America, and it’s got to be pristine,” Trump said.

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A federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s proposed “triumphal arch” in Washington, D.C., just hours after a federal panel voted to give final approval to the project Thursday night.

D.C. District Court Judge Tonya S. Chutkan granted the D.C. and Virginia governments’ request for a temporary restraining order late Thursday, halting the Trump administration’s efforts to begin construction for at least 14 days.

Chutkan also consolidated the case with a separate lawsuit filed by three Vietnam War veterans and an architectural historian.

The vote by the National Capital Planning Commission, which is led by Trump appointees, was 8-4. The vote came after hours of public testimony, including from the Vietnam veteran who’s leading the lawsuit to stop the project, who called it “frankly blasphemous.”

Michael Lemmon, who served in the Army before spending a career in the foreign service, told the NCPC that the 250-foot arch would “profoundly disturb the peace and tranquility” owed to those buried at nearby Arlington National Cemetery.

“It is frankly blasphemous,” Lemmon told the commission.

Lemmon was one of some 130 people who had signed up to provide their comments to the NCPC before its final vote.

The proposed arch would be more than twice as tall as the 99-foot-high Lincoln Memorial and taller than France’s Arc de Triomphe.

The public testimony began with a fiery exchange between Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, and NCPC Chair Mark Paoletta.

Huffman blasted plans for the arch, saying it “would dishonor America, our ideals and our laws.”

Paoletta challenged Huffman on his knowledge of the history of Columbia Island — where the arch would be built across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial — insisting the project was authorized over 100 years ago when Congress approved the initial plan for Memorial Bridge, which connects Washington, D.C., with the cemetery.

“If you want to make that argument to a federal court, go for it. You’re going to lose,” Huffman responded.

A lawsuit filed by Lemmon and fellow vets, recently joined by D.C. and Virginia, accuses the Trump administration of violating federal law by not seeking specific congressional authorization for the project.

Paoletta, a Trump loyalist who also serves as OMB’s general counsel and acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, defended the arch at the start of the meeting. 

“President Trump’s historic vision for a monumental arch at Memorial Circle would complete a project over a century in the making,” Paoletta said, adding that the project would “honor our nation and her veterans, and provide the sacred ground of Arlington National Cemetery with the monumental gateway it deserves.”

Pointing to President Trump’s plan to have the arch house drones, snipers and ammunition, Paoletta also said the arch would mark “a generational security opportunity to protect our nation’s capital.”

With the administration indicating it could begin construction as soon as the NCPC grants its final approval, the judge presiding over the lawsuit against the project has ordered the administration to provide the court with at least 30 minutes’ notice before any work begins.

Earlier Thursday, the Justice Department informed the court that a construction contractor had prematurely painted lines on the grounds. Pictures of the painted grass were posted by a freelance photographer.

Lawyers for the administration say the contractor “did not have authorization from the National Park Service (NPS) to undertake the line painting,” adding that NPS officials might “periodically visit the site to prevent unauthorized activity.”

The Park Service plans to have construction of the arch take place 20 hours per day over the next two to three years, according to planning documents released earlier this year by the Interior Department.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated

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Four months after America celebrated 250 years of independence, voters are projected to make history again, electing Black governors in states that have never done so.

With votes still being counted, ABC News projects that Democrats Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, David Crowley in Wisconsin and Aaron Ford in Nevada, along with Republican Byron Donalds in Florida, will win their races.

The victories came at a time when Black Americans already hold some of the most influential positions in Washington: with Democrats projected to take control of the House, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is poised to be the first Black speaker of the House, where enslaved Black Americans helped construct the U.S. Capitol more than two centuries ago; Republican Tim Scott is the longest-serving Black senator in American history; and the country has elected both a Black president and a Black woman as vice president.

Yet before Tuesday, only three Black Americans had ever been elected governor of a U.S. state.

With his 2022 election, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore followed Virginia’s L. Douglas Wilder in 1989 and Massachusetts’ Deval Patrick in 2006. Moore is projected by ABC News to win reelection.

In the U.S. Virgin Islands, Democratic Delegate Stacey Plaskett is projected to win the governor’s race and become the territory’s first woman chief executive.

After their inauguration next year, Black governors will represent 10% of the nation’s chief state executives for the first time in history.

Other Black politicians have been governor without winning an election, including Louisiana’s P.B.S. Pinchback during Reconstruction and New York’s David Paterson, who succeeded Eliot Spitzer after his resignation in 2008.

In Georgia, one of the original Confederate states, Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor, will be the country’s first Black woman elected governor, in addition to being Georgia’s first Black and first woman governor.

Bottoms, who has deep roots in Georgia, is descended from enslaved people. Her projected victory follows two unsuccessful gubernatorial campaigns by fellow Democrat Stacey Abrams, who sought the office in 2018 and 2022.

In Florida, Donalds, a Republican congressman who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, will be the country’s first Black Republican elected as governor.

Milwaukee County Executive Crowley will be Wisconsin’s first Black governor in its 178-year history.

Ford, Nevada’s attorney general, would hold the distinction of being the first Black person to have been elected governor west of the Mississippi River. Ford previously made history as Nevada’s first Black AG and state Senate majority leader.

The victories span two political parties, several regions and candidates with vastly different political views. Despite those differences, the victories share a historical distinction that few have ever held in the country’s semiquincentennial.

And the historic firsts extended beyond governors’ races.

With Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s projected re-election, running mate and former New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams would become the state’s first Black woman elected lieutenant governor.

In Oklahoma, Republican T.W. Shannon is projected to win his race for lieutenant governor. Shannon, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, also made history as Oklahoma’s first Black and Chickasaw House speaker.

In another historic milestone reaching back 150 years, ABC News projects South Carolina state Sen. Mike Reichenbach is set to become the state’s first Black lieutenant governor since 1876.

The last two Black men to serve as lieutenant governor were Republicans Alonzo J. Ransier, who served from 1870 to 1872, and Richard Howell Gleaves, who served from 1872 to 1876.

In Pennsylvania, Austin Davis, the state’s first Black lieutenant governor, is projected to serve a second term with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro.

The Senate is also set to make a historic change when the new Congress convenes.

In Illinois, Democratic Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is projected to win the state’s U.S. Senate seat and would become just the sixth Black woman to serve in the chamber. She would join Democratic Sens. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, marking the first time that three Black women serve in the Senate simultaneously.

The historic victories followed years of unsuccessful, high profile campaigns by Black candidates on both sides of the aisle. Along with Abrams’ two losses in Georgia, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears fell short in her 2025 bid to become Virginia’s first Black woman governor.

Not every Black candidate who ran for governor won Tuesday, though.

In Michigan, Republican U.S. Rep. John James lost his bid for governor, while South Carolina Democrat Jermaine Johnson also fell short. In Florida’s Senate race, democratic socialist Angie Nixon lost to Ashley Moody, who was running for a full term after being appointed to fill the remainder of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s term.

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President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would remain on the job, even as he acknowledged that the war with Iran had contributed to Republicans’ sweeping midterm losses and as Democrats prepare to use their new congressional majority to potentially investigate the Pentagon chief.

Trump dismissed the possibility of replacing Hegseth, telling reporters he was “doing a great job.” When asked about speculation that Hegseth is eyeing Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s soon-to-be-vacated Tennessee seat, Trump predicted the defense secretary would be “very popular” in the state.

Blackburn, who won Tennessee’s gubernatorial race Tuesday, declined to weigh in on who might be picked to fill her Senate seat. Asked about who would be appointed, she said, “It’s not a conversation for today.”

Trump’s remarks come as Republicans grapple with the political fallout from the eight-month war with Iran, which has driven up gas prices and fueled voter frustration over the cost of living. The war and its economic consequences are widely seen as a major factor in Republicans’ crushing midterm defeat.

“The Iran thing we had to do, and we continue to do it,” Trump told reporters, adding that he believes the war will be worth it in the long term.

In April, Hegseth declared a “historic and overwhelming victory” over Iran. But fighting has continued for months, killing and wounding American troops, driving up energy costs and consuming expensive U.S. munitions that could take years to replace.

Hegseth intends to remain at the Pentagon through the end of Trump’s term, according to his spokesperson.

“Secretary Hegseth will not back down or be deterred by politicians seeking to score partisan points or launch phony investigations where no wrongdoing exists,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told ABC News Wednesday, adding Hegseth is “100% committed to leading the Department until the end of President Trump’s term in office.”

Trump has privately sought input from Republicans close to the White House about how they feel Hegseth is doing in the job, according to sources familiar with the situation, as the administration grapples with the political consequences of the war and the election.

Democrats say they are preparing to use their new congressional majority to scrutinize an administration that has faced limited oversight during the past two years, with Hegseth expected to be a major target for scrutiny and possible impeachment. Democrats could use their subpoena power to attempt to question Pentagon officials about the Iran war, the legality of strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats and Hegseth’s unexplained firings of senior military officers.

But party leaders are also looking to keep affordability at the forefront of their agenda, balancing investigations into the Trump administration with the economic concerns that helped deliver their sweeping midterm wins.

Vice President JD Vance, who has been widely viewed as a possible contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028, distanced himself from the conflict in a candid rebuke of the administration, placing the GOP defeat on the war with Iran.

“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance said in a social media post Wednesday. “The president himself said so last night.”

Nationally, 34% of U.S. House voters said that the war in Iran was “crucial” to their vote, while 49% said the same about the cost of living and 55% said government corruption was crucial to their vote, according to ABC News Voter Poll data.

Vance argued that Republicans could defend the decision to go to war, but should not ignore the electoral consequences.

“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest,” he added. “But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”

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Texas Republicans touched off a battle of mid-decade redistricting efforts when they embraced a plan pushed by President Donald Trump for the GOP-controlled legislature to redraw congressional districts to make them more friendly to Republicans.

California retaliated with its own gerrymandering in an effort to flip five seats held by Republicans to counter the effort to redraw five seats in Texas.

Other states got into the fight, either choosing to redraw their maps ahead of the midterm elections or taking advantage of court rulings that gave them an opportunity to.

While Republicans redrew 15 congressional seats to try to flip over the past two years, as of Wednesday evening they are projected to lose two-thirds of them. Meanwhile, California’s Proposition 50 ballot initiative that redrew five seats to make them more friendly to Democrats appears to be paying off for them.

Here’s where things currently stand:

Redrawn by Republicans

Alabama Second District: Democrats hold — Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures is projected to hold onto his seat.

Florida 9: Not yet projected.

Florida 14: Democrats hold — Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor is projected to keep her seat.

Florida 22: Democrats hold — Democrat Pia Dandiya is projected to win.

Florida 25: Democrats hold — Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz is projected to win in this district.

Louisiana 6: Not yet projected.

North Carolina 1: Not yet projected.

Ohio 1: Democrats hold — Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman is projected to win.

Ohio 9: Democrats hold — Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur is projected to win.

Tennessee 9: Republicans flip — Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson conceded to Brent Taylor in this seat that opened up when Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen announced he was retiring.

Texas 9: Democrats hold – Democrat Leticia Gutierrez is projected to win this open seat.

Texas 28: Democrats hold — Rep. Henry Cuellar is projected to win.

Texas 32: Republicans flip — Jace Yarbrough is projected to win this seat that is open after Democratic Rep. Julie Johnson opted to leave Congress.

Texas 34: Democrats hold — Rep. Vincente Gonzalez is projected to win.

Texas 35: Democrats hold — Democrat Jonny Garcia is projected to win.

Redrawn by Democrats

California 1: Democrats flip — Mike McGuire unseated GOP Rep. James Gallagher.

California 3: Democrats flip — Rep. Ami Bera won this seat held by Republican-aligned independent Kevin Kiley, who is projected to lose in the new 6th District.

California 6: Democrats flip — Randy Villegas unseated Rep. David Valadao

California 41: Democrats flip — Linda Sánchez is projected to win this seat held by Republican Ken Calvert, who ran in a different district.

California 48: Democrats flip — Democrat Marni von Wilpert is projected to flip the seat held by Republican incumbent Darrell Issa, who is retiring.

Utah 1: Democrats flip — former Rep. Ben McAdams is projected to win in this redrawn district that favored Democrats and caused shuffling and retirements among Utah incumbents.

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Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that the Trump administration’s ongoing war with Iran was to blame for Republicans’ massive losses in Tuesday’s midterm election, during which Democrats reclaimed control of both chambers of Congress.

But President Donald Trump, asked about Vance’s comments, remained committed to the ongoing military action despite “largely” agreeing with Vance about the impact of the war on the election.

The vice president wrote in a lengthy social media post that “the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.”

“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance said of the Trump administration’s ongoing conflict with Iran. “The president himself said so last night.”

Vance said he spoke with pollsters who told him that many people who voted for Trump in 2024 switched to the Democrats in this election because they were “angry.”

The ABC News Voter Poll found about 4 in 10 House voters nationally said they were angry about the way things were going in the country today and a similar share were dissatisfied.

“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there,” Vance wrote.

The vice president in the past has publicly been supportive of the war and slammed the president’s critics over the issue.

Trump often suggested on the campaign trail that the war, and inflated gas prices, were “a small price to pay” to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.

Asked about Vance’s comments during an event at the White House on Wednesday, Trump called them “largely true,” however he defended his decision to attack Iran, which he has done in the past.

“If I had it to do again, I’d have to do it again because long term, it’s the only answer,” Trump told reporters. “You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump said he knew Vance’s view of the war from the beginning. 

“I know how he feels about it. I think it was — I think it was fine. Yeah, I thought it was good,” Trump said of Vance’s social media post. “I knew that when I went in, and we stopped them from having a nuclear weapon, and they will never have a nuclear weapon.”

Asked if he felt the war was worth it, Trump said he did.

“I do. Yeah. I mean, well, you have no choice,” he said, later adding, “I can tell you that, as far as that war is concerned, I would have done nothing differently.”

ABC News’ Voter Poll of House voters found that voters nationally were more focused on other factors, including the cost of living, than the Iran war.

Nationally, 34% of U.S. House voters said that the war in Iran was “crucial” to their vote, while 49% said the same about the cost of living and 55% said government corruption was crucial to their vote.

Although the Iran war has led to rising gas prices, voters have said that their concerns over the cost of living weren’t just limited to their receipts at the pump.

The Voter Poll found 59% of House voters nationally saying they were “very concerned” about the cost of healthcare.

About 6 in 10 U.S. House voters said that the federal government should play a bigger role in helping Americans get healthcare and 55% said the Trump administration’s policies have made their healthcare costs worse. Just 10% said the Trump administration has improved their healthcare costs, according to the Voter Poll.

Trump’s tariffs have also been costing the typical American household almost $1,000 a year.

Vance said in his X post that an unidentified pollster told him that their “economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch.”

Vance argued that Republicans were not failed by turnout among Trump 2024 voters, saying they “showed up,” but that those Americans, according to a pollster, were “pissed and planning to vote for the other guys.”

He also claimed of Republican turnout that “in no state was it catastrophic.”

“The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026,” the vice president said.

-ABC News’ Elizabeth Schulze contributed to this report.

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