Golden ticket: why Versailles invite is the ‘real deal’ for Trump

For a US president who has likened himself to a king and redecorated the Oval Office with golden paint and gold ornaments, it feels like the perfect dinner venue.Donald Trump said one of the deciding factors in accepting an invitation to dine with Emmanuel Macron at the spectacular, 2,300-room Palace of Versailles was that it was “not gold leaf” but the “real deal”.The palace, set in grounds of more than 800 hectares (almost 2,000 acres) to the west of Paris, is both a historic seat of royal power and a symbol of the French Revolution.A state banquet in honour of King Charles and Queen Camilla in Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors in September 2023. Photograph: Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty ImagesOne of the greatest achievements in 17th-century art, it was designed to be an architectural embodiment of the Sun King, Louis XIV, and was home to his great-great-great-grandson Louis XVI when the Women’s March on Versailles heralded the beginning of the end of the French monarchy in 1789.Of all modern French presidents, Macron has made most use of the palace as a symbol of French luxury, power and diplomacy. In 2017, he hosted Vladimir Putin there, driving the Russian leader around the grounds in an electric golf cart and holding a joint press event in a gallery of historic war paintings. In 2023, he hosted King Charles in the famed Hall of Mirrors and he regularly uses the palace as a showcase for investment summits.Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron walk through the palace’s Gallery of Battles in May 2017. Photograph: Stéphane de Sakutin/EPATrump will tour key rooms in the palace before sitting down to dinner in the Lower Gallery, which opens on to a terrace with views of the gardens. The table will be set amid an array of statues commissioned by the Sun King himself.It’s rare for a US president to be hosted at Versailles as the main guest of honour with no other foreign leaders present. Notable past recipients of the honour include John F Kennedy, who was hosted for a state dinner in 1961.The vast estate has long held a fascination for American millionaires, with the Vanderbilts’ Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island, among many buildings inspired by its architecture.Yvonne de Gaulle, John F Kennedy, Charles de Gaulle and Jackie Kennedy at Versailles in June 1961. Photograph: AFP/Getty ImagesFrench pomp and pageantry have also been an inspiration to Trump. When he was invited to the Bastille Day military parade in Paris in 2017, he expressed an interest in a similar show of strength back home.“Beautiful building,” Trump once said of the Élysée Palace – the 365-room presidential home in Paris that is twice the size of the White House.Time will tell whether dinner at Versailles gives him any fresh ideas for grand design and décor projects back home.