What you need to know
As controversy continues over the White House’s extensive construction projects, First Lady Melania Trump this week began decorating for Halloween in preparation for an upcoming holiday celebration, which will be held just around the corner from the demolished East Wing.
“The @WhiteHouse is preparing for Halloween 🎃,” her office posted to X on Tuesday, October 28, along with photos of decorations in progress.
In contrast to past years in the White House, first lady Melania Trump, who took some heat for style decisions during her husband’s first term, appears to have kept the decor simpler, especially for the start of the busy holiday season in the midst of a lengthy government shutdown. Pumpkins line the back door and stairs, and colorful leaves cascade between the pillars of the south portico.
It seems like there are a lot of decorations with a general “autumn” theme rather than Halloween. But it could be a deliberate decision to avoid spooking young guests who come for traditional trick-or-treating with the president and first lady.
Melania has gotten a little creepy over the past few years. Her 2019 look featured thin trees and orange lighting to set the mood.
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The 2020 coronavirus-era socially distanced trick-or-treat event also had a fall feel, but with much more variety in decorations than this year.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty
First lady Melania Trump hasn’t had an easy time dealing with holidays at the White House. In 2020, an audio recording of the first lady was leaked to CNN in which she could be heard complaining about being held accountable for both President Trump’s aesthetics and her husband’s controversial policies.
“I’m working… I’m all about Christmas stuff. Who cares about Christmas stuff and decorations?” Melania said in the 2018 recording. “But I need to, don’t I?”
“Okay, so when I said I was working and planning for Christmas, they said, ‘Oh, what’s going to happen to the kids that are separated?’ Give me a break,” she continued.
After a four-year break from the White House, Melania’s friends, political insiders and Mar-a-Lago club members told PEOPLE in December 2024 that she plans to step up and carry on the White House tradition during her husband’s second term.
“Melania will do what is asked of her as first lady on her own terms, including decorating the White House for the Christmas holidays,” a Palm Beach social source told PEOPLE. “She will set her own schedule, make her own rules, and use her own preferences.”
However, recent reports suggest that the first lady is not taking credit for the controversial destruction of the east wing of the White House to make way for the president’s much-touted ballroom.
Some of the president’s early White House renovations, such as paving the Rose Garden, were said to have been done with the help of the first lady, but the Wall Street Journal reported this week that first lady Melania Trump was not involved in planning the ballroom.
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The newspaper investigated how the Donald is moving through the demolition of controversial historic buildings at a breakneck pace, and administration officials claimed that first lady Melania “privately expressed concerns about demolishing the East Tower and told officials it was not her project.”
PEOPLE has reached out to Melania Trump’s office for comment on the WSJ report.
