By Arden Farhi | Updated April 11, 2026
President Trump has sent a proposal to the Commission of Fine Arts seeking permission to paint the slate-gray Eisenhower Executive Office Building white.
The French Second Empire–style structure, completed in 1888, sits across a driveway from the West Wing and contains offices used by members of the president’s staff, including the National Security Council. The building’s current gray stone exterior is a long-standing feature of the federal complex.
According to the submission from the Executive Office of the President, the proposal argues the building is an “eyesore” that has been criticized over time and has deteriorated since its construction. The filing contends that “the color, design, and massing of the existing structure does not align visually with the surrounding architecture and lacks any symbolic cohesion with the White House.”
The document notes visible cracks and other signs of poor exterior maintenance and says that painting the stone would be a repeatable measure to address an ongoing inability to restore the facade to a consistent baseline color.
Renderings included with the plans show how the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and the White House West Wing would look if the gray stone were painted white.
The Executive Office of the President will present the proposal to the Commission of Fine Arts, the federal panel that advises on public architecture and design in Washington, D.C. The commission is scheduled to consider the plan at its April 16 meeting.