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Transcript: Trump Takes Questions In Oval Office After Massive Republican Midterm Losses 

In this Oval Office event (November 5, 2026), President Donald Trump signs a proclamation designating the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room as a national monument, then takes questions from reporters after the Republican midterm losses. He talks about tariffs, Iran and Venezuela, Pete Hegseth, the Russia-Ukraine peace effort, newly elected Democratic Socialist mayors, his White House renovations, and the “fake Dan Sullivan” votes in the Alaska Senate race. Here is the full transcript.

Proclamation Making the Oval Office and Cabinet Room a National Monument

DONALD TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. We have something that is of great interest to me, but it’s of great interest to a lot of people. And it concerns the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room. A very important spaces, and I’m going to be signing a document which will make them into a landmark for the ages. It won’t be able to be taken down, destroyed, touched, or anything else.

It’s called actually a national monument. It’s a federal landmark. And when completed and when we get the documentation fully done and legally binding, it’ll make it impossible for anybody ever to destroy this incredible space. We won World War II. We won World War I.

We won a lot of things. We built a country largely a modern… The country as we know it, the modern country. And we certainly had some good years during my, so far, six years.

And I just thought it was very important that nobody be allowed to come in and take it down and try and do something with it because every once in a while, they’ll look and they’ll say, “Oh, maybe what we’ll do is we’ll put some glass up that’s a little bit better or something.”

And I said, “No. You’re not going to do anything. We’re going to leave this as it is.” It’s a great landmark, and that goes for the Cabinet Room too. If you want, we can show you the Cabinet Room.

It’s been very upgraded and made really beautiful. I’m going to let you go into that in two seconds after we’re finished with this. So with that being said, I think what we’ll do is we’ll sign the document. Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: This is a historic proclamation. It preserves this historic space for future generations. As you said, it’s a symbol of the American presidency and American government. It’s where American history is made. And today, it’ll be preserved for the future.

DONALD TRUMP: Very, very important place. Very amazing. The biggest people come through that door or that door or that door, a lot of doors. And they’re in this room, and they can’t believe it.

We had the President of China recently, and then a couple of weeks before that, we had King Charles. And they both said, “Wow, this is the Oval Office.”

So it’s very important. Very important. The biggest people, every time they walk through those doors, they want to just examine and look at it. You can never do that. You couldn’t do that. You couldn’t build a space that would have that kind of importance, the history of it.

So we’re going to be declaring an international monument, and we’re going to send it over to Congress to have it ratified. And the Oval Office was built in 1909 by President William Howard Taft. It’s a long time ago.

And the current Oval Office is that it’s really known today as it was slightly modified in 1934 for FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, modified to make it a little bit easier for him. You understand that? What I mean by that? Including a ramping system outside that’s amazing and actually beautiful.

So we’ve had a lot victories in this office, almost. I mean, there’s been some mistakes too, but the… We’ve had tremendous victory in this office.

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. We like the Oval Office, and it’s a symbol like the White House itself. It’s a symbol of our country and the greatness of our country.

So I’ll sign that. And I think in theory, that should end that problem. And if anyone ever decides to come and start knocking down walls, you’ll call me wherever I may be, and I will come back here, and I will make sure it never happens. Okay? Thank you very much.

Oh, that’s a good one. That’s good. It’s important to have a good one for this. Very artistic. Send a nice signature. That’s very nice. Let me rate that one. It should be a 10 because this space is a 10.

And we’re going to open up, if you will. We’re going to open up. This is a great Laura Ingraham. Hello, Laura. Why aren’t you in here? She started out over here. Now look at her. She’s made so much money. She’s a great person.

Upgrades to the Cabinet Room

DONALD TRUMP: We’re going to let you see the Cabinet Room too. It was very substantially upgraded. That also is becoming a federal monument, a national landmark, and that will make it, in theory, impossible to knock down, change in any meaningful way. The walls will remain the same as they’ve been. The interior will be pretty much the same as it’s been.

We have put up brand new chandeliers. They had very bad lighting and very bad, actually, lanterns. They had lanterns inside. But the new chandeliers are beautiful, and the whole space is beautiful. It’s been very substantially upgraded.

So we’re making them both and as a unit, a national landmark monument. You could call what you want. Steve?

REPORTER: Can any modifications be made? I mean, occasionally, there’s a need for…

DONALD TRUMP: No major modification without the approval of Congress. So if they want to say, “Let’s not have Oval anymore.