In less than a year, President Trump has already significantly remade the White House. The Oval Office is decorated from top to bottom in gold. The Rose Garden’s lawn is paved over. And on Monday, part of the East Wing was demolished as Mr. Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom project forged ahead.

Here is what we know about five key White House renovations:

East Wing Ballroom

One of the biggest renovations underway is Mr. Trump’s addition of a ballroom to the East Wing. First announced in July, Mr. Trump trumpeted its construction as necessary to host large events for world leaders. He has said it will cost more than $200 million to build and will hold “999” people.

Mr. Trump has said that personal contributions and private donations will cover the bill for the ballroom, not taxpayers or foreign contributions. But this has raised concerns among historians and government ethics experts.

According to images released by the White House, the proposed design of the ballroom’s interior echoes features of the Grand Ballroom at Mr. Trump’s Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago. At 90,000 square feet, the East Wing Ballroom will nearly double the White House’s footprint. Demolition of part of the East Wing began in late October.

Rose Garden

Over the summer, Mr. Trump had the Rose Garden paved over with stone tiles, and tables with yellow and white striped umbrellas were added, mirroring the hard-surface patio at Mar-a-Lago. But the rose bushes are still there.

Mr. Trump recently hosted a dinner for Republican lawmakers in the renovated space, calling it the “Rose Garden Club.” The ceremony to posthumously award the conservative activist Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom was also held here.

Oval Office

Mr. Trump’s affinity for gold decor is perhaps most evident in the Oval Office. Portraits framed in gold are mounted on the walls, along with gold framed mirrors and gilded onlays. Even the presidential seal on the ceiling of the office is covered in gold leaf.

The Oval Office is the official working space of the president, and in his second term, Mr. Trump has often used it to meet with foreign leaders. The backdrop to these meetings is usually the fireplace mantle that Mr. Trump has adorned with historic items from the White House collection — all in gold.

Presidents often make changes to the Oval Office to reflect their priorities or the legacy they want to embody. But past presidents, including Mr. Trump in his first term, have typically decorated using a more subdued approach.

In his second term, Mr. Trump has even moved the White House ivy that has typically adorned the mantle to a greenhouse.

Cabinet Room

Mr. Trump’s gold theme extends to the Cabinet Room, where he often holds meetings with his staff and occasionally with international leaders. Golden onlays and trim have been added to the walls, and the mantle is also decorated with gold items.

Mr. Trump has also added more flags to the room, including flags for specific branches of the military, including the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force. Ornate chandeliers now light the room.

West Colonnade

In September, Mr. Trump unveiled the “Presidential Walk of Fame” on the West Colonnade, which is the main walkway between the White House’s executive residence and the West Wing. The exhibit displays every president’s portrait, in chronological order, framed in gold with additional gold onlays above the portraits.

But in place of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s portrait is a photo of an autopen signing his name, a reference to the claims Mr. Trump has made without giving evidence that Mr. Biden’s cognitive state impaired him from signing documents and granting pardons. Presidents and other politicians have used devices like the autopen for decades, and Mr. Biden has said he made the clemency decisions that were signed with an autopen.

An estimated 7 million Americans turned out Saturday to peacefully protest against the breakdown of our checks-and-balances democracy into a Trump-driven autocracy, rife with grift but light on civil rights.

Trump’s response? An AI video of himself wearing a crown inside a fighter plane, dumping what appears to be feces on these very protesters. In a later interview, he called participants of the “No Kings” events “whacked out” and “not representative of this country.”

I’m beginning to fear he’s right. What if the majority of Americans really do believe this sort of behavior by our president, or by anyone really, is acceptable? Even funny? A recent Economist/YouGov poll found that 81% of Republicans approve of the way Trump is handling his job. Seriously, the vast majority of Republicans are just fine with Trump’s policies and behavior.

According to MAGA, non-MAGA people are just too uptight these days.

Vice Troll JD Vance has become a relentless force for not just defending the most base and cruel of behaviors, but celebrating them. House Speaker Mike Johnson has made the spineless, limp justification of these behaviors an art form.

Between the two approaches to groveling to Trump’s ego and mendacity is everything you need to know about the future of the Republican Party. It will stop at nothing to debase and dehumanize any opposition — openly acknowledging that it dreams of burying in excrement even those who peacefully object.

Not even singer Kenny Loggins is safe. His “Top Gun” hit “Danger Zone” was used in the video. When he objected with a statement of unity, saying, “Too many people are trying to tear us apart, and we need to find new ways to come together. We’re all Americans, and we’re all patriotic. There is no ‘us and them’,” the White House responded with … a dismissive meme, clearly the new norm when responding to critics.

It may seem obvious, and even old news that this administration lacks accountability. But the use of memes and AI videos as communication, devoid of truth or consequence, adds a new level of danger to the disconnect.

These non-replies not only remove reality from the equation, but remove the need for an actual response — creating a ruling class that does not feel any obligation to explain or defend its actions to the ruled.

Politico published a story last week detailing the racist, misogynistic and hate-filled back-and-forth of an official, party-sanctioned “young Republican” group. Since most of our current politicians are part of the gerontocracy, that young is relative — these are adults, in their 20s and 30s — and they are considered the next generation of party leaders, in a party that has already skewed so far right that it defends secret police.

Here’s a sample.

Bobby Walker, the former vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans, called rape “epic,” according to Politico.

Another member of the chat called Black Americans “watermelon people.”

“Great. I love Hitler,” wrote another when told delegates would vote for the most far-right candidate.

There was also gas chamber “humor” in there and one straight up, “I’m ready to watch people burn now,” from a woman in the conversation, Anne KayKaty, New York’s Young Republican’s national committee member, according to the Hill.

Group members engaged in slurs against South Asians, another popular target of the far right these days. There’s an entire vein of racism devoted to the idea that Indians smell bad, in case you were unaware.

Speaking of a woman mistakenly believed to be South Asian, one group member — Vermont state Sen. Samuel Douglass, wrote: “She just didn’t bathe often.”

While some in the Republican party have denounced, albeit half-heartedly, the comments, others, including Vance, have gone on the attack. Vance, whose wife is Indian, claims everyone is making a big deal out of nothing.

“But the reality is that kids do stupid things. Especially young boys, they tell edgy, offensive jokes. Like, that’s what kids do,” Vance said. “And I really don’t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke — telling a very offensive, stupid joke — is cause to ruin their lives.”

Not to be outdone, Johnson responded to the poop jet video by somehow insinuating there is an elevated meaning to it.

“The president was using social media to make a point,” Johnson said, calling it “satire.”

Satire is meant to embarrass and humiliate, to call out through humor the indefensible. I’ll buy the first part of that. Trump meant to embarrass and humiliate. But protesting, of course, is anything but indefensible and the use of feces as a weapon is a way of degrading those “No Kings” participants so that Trump doesn’t have to answer to their anger — no different than degrading Black people and women in that group chat.

Those 7 million Americans who demonstrated on Saturday simply do not matter to Trump, or to Republicans. Not their healthcare, not their ability to pay the bills, not their worry that a country they love is turning in to one where their leader literally illustrates that he can defecate on them.

But not everyone can be king.

While the young Republicans believe they shared in their leader’s immunity, it turns out they don’t. That Vermont state senator? He resigned after the Republican governor put on pressure.

Maybe 7 million Americans angry at Trump can’t convince him to change his ways, but enough outraged Vermont voters can make change in their corner of the country.

Which is why the one thing Trump does fear is the midterms, when voters get to shape our own little corners of America — and by extension, whether Trump gets to keep using his throne.