A small, private room in the White House, known as the Oval Office study, has witnessed decades of history.
Archival photographs show presidents in the study undertaking the daily tasks of leading the free world. President Ronald Reagan drafted his 1985 inaugural address there.
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush spoke on the phone about the United States’ invasion of Panama.
In the Trump era, the room has changed. Now, it looks almost like a miniature version of the gift shop at a Trump property.
President Trump doesn’t spend much time in the study working. But he takes foreign leaders there to show off the goods, including hats that reference a third term.
Trump uses the Oval Office study largely as a display space for items adhering to a theme — himself. Neatly arranged on the shelves are signed water bottles, gold trays, pins and matchbooks printed or embossed with his signature. There are also a dozen or so styles of hats that read:
“TRUMP 2028.”
“TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!”
“4 MORE YEARS!”
“GULF OF AMERICA.”
And, of course, “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
The study is part of a small suite of private rooms, including a bathroom and a dining room, that are clustered off the Oval Office for the president’s use.
On the same day in August that several European leaders met with Trump at the White House to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war, Margo Martin, a communications adviser to the president, posted a photograph on social platform X of Trump showing items in this room to French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Earlier that month, video posted to social media showed Trump presenting items from the room to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev after a meeting.
The president does not appear to be selling anything from this room to his guests. (Though some items on display are available for purchase on the Trump Store website or the White House Historical Association’s online shop.)
According to a White House official, Trump uses the Oval Office as his primary office, and therefore wanted to turn the lesser-used study into a gift room for guests. The items in the room are swapped out or restocked at the discretion of Trump.
It’s not unusual for guests of the president to receive gifts or souvenirs. For example, presidential M&Ms with the president’s signature — on display on the shelves in the Oval Office study are typically given as gifts to guests on Air Force One. (The standard gift on Air Force One used to be cigarettes.)
But a whole room dedicated to merchandise is more distinctive to Trump, who used the Oval Office study similarly during his first term. According to a 2022 book by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, who were then New York Times reporters, visitors could take MAGA- and Trump-themed swag from the room. Speaking on Fox News in June 2024, Kevin McCarthy, the former speaker of the House, called the room during Trump’s first term a “gift shop.”
Other presidents have used this space as a private office where they could do focused work or take phone calls away from the more visible Oval Office.
The room also became infamous for its role as a meeting place for President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, then a White House intern, as outlined in the impeachment proceedings against Clinton.
President Joe Biden told Architectural Digest in December 2023 that he used the space to work on his speeches. Biden decorated the walls of the room with a portrait of President John F. Kennedy, an illustration of his childhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and drawings and letters from children.
In place of the Kennedy portrait is now a poster with an illustration of Trump holding up a fist after the assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, and a framed sheet of dollar bills.
There is no desk in the room.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.