Photos show Epstein's Manhattan townhouse and Trump's Oval Office with similar gold decor

In early December 2025, progressive media outlet Occupy Democrats posted a graphic on Instagram and Facebook (archived, archived) comparing U.S. President Donald Trump's White House interior decorations with the Manhattan home of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The illustration spread days after House Oversight Committee Democrats released a trove of photos and videos from "Epstein's Island" in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

One of the photos in Occupy Democrats' graphic purportedly showed Trump standing in front of shelves, a wall and a doorway with gold trimmings and decorations. The other picture appeared to show the interior of Epstein's Manhattan townhouse with similar gold trimmings on the mantelpiece and frames.  

A Snopes reader shared a similar illustration featuring the two photographs and overlaid text that read: "This is a photo from Epstein's living room that was just released from the files. Now all of a sudden Trump's 'renovations' to the Oval Office make a lot more sense." 

(Snopes reader)

In short, the two photos accurately showed the interior of Trump's White House and of Epstein's Manhattan home. There were numerous authenticated photographs from news media coverage of Trump's White House that corroborated the decor, and court records revealed FBI pictures of Epstein's Manhattan home. As such, we rated this claim true.

Epstein's Manhattan townhouse

The photo showing the interior of Epstein's Manhattan townhouse was authentic. The FBI captured it when raiding Epstein's house in 2019. Court records showed the government submitted pictures of his home into evidence in December 2021. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York provided Snopes with a copy of the photograph from its records pertaining to Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell's trial, as seen below. (In December 2021, Maxwell was found guilty of facilitating and participating in the sexual abuse of children with Epstein and was handed a 20-year prison sentence.)

The picture in question was publicly available on Wikimedia Commons and in the court records we obtained.

(U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York/FBI)

Several of Epstein's victims said he regularly abused them in his Manhattan home. An FBI agent testified at Maxwell's trial in 2021 (see Page 224) that they found cash, loose diamonds and a foreign passport with Epstein's photograph under a different name in the house. 

Per court records (see Page 7), the government argued the house photographs would "corroborate [one of Epstein's victims] Jane's testimony that the house was intimidating and contains significant amounts of wood and stone, as Jane stated."

Trump's White House renovations

Snopes and other news media outlets have shown that Trump's Oval Office was redecorated with gold designs after he returned for his second term as president. The photograph from the Occupy Democrats graphic was available on The White House website, where it outlined the Oval Office renovations. The caption stated:

In March 2025, President Donald Trump initiated a privately funded renovation of the Oval Office, incorporating gold filigree, historic portraits, and custom carvings inspired by his Mar-a-Lago estate. Completed by August 2025, the updates enhanced the room's aesthetic with elegant gold-accented decor, creating a refined setting for high-level meetings and showcasing America as the greatest nation in history.

(The White House)

As the pictures showed, the two men appeared to share similar taste in interior decorations. Gold trimmings and ornaments are commonly found in homes of the wealthy around the world. 

Snopes has previously covered the release of images showing a room on Epstein's private Caribbean island featuring masks on walls that depicted older men.