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Oval Office gets slight makeover under President Biden

A portrait of former president Andrew Jackson that Trump hung in the Oval Office has been replaced by a portrait of Benjamin Franklin.

President Joe Biden has given the Oval Office a slight makeover.

Biden revealed the new décor Wednesday as he invited reporters into his new office to watch him sign a series of executive orders hours after he took office.

A bust of Cesar Chavez, the labor leader and civil rights activist, is nestled among an array of framed family photos displayed on a desk behind the new president.

Benjamin Franklin peers down at Biden from a portrait on a nearby wall. Franklin's portrait replaced a portrait of former president Andrew Jackson that Trump hung in his office, according to The Washington Post

Biden brought a dark blue rug out of storage to replace a lighter colored one installed by former President Donald Trump.

One office feature remains: Biden is also using what’s known as the Resolute Desk because it was built from oak used in the British Arctic exploration ship HMS Resolute.

Trump used that desk, too.

According to the Washington Post, Biden's office also include busts of Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt. There also is a sculpture depicting a horse and rider by Allan Houser of the Chiricahua Apache tribe. 

The deputy director of Oval Office operations told The Washington Post that “It was important for President Biden to walk into an Oval that looked like America and started to show the landscape of who he is going to be as president.”

The newspaper noted that paintings of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, two men who frequently disagreed with each other, were added to the office and specifically hung near each to illustrate the benefits that come from differing views.

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Credit: AP
President Joe Biden signs his first executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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