Donald Trump casually floats settlement with Putin which can have an effect on ‘all of Europe’

Trump also said he’d met with an envoy from Russia, and had hatched a “big beautiful agreement” that will involve “all of Europe”

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Donald Trump casually floated an agreement with Russia during an event about interior design.

The US President, still licking his wounds after the generational thumping handed to his Republican Party in Tuesday’s midterm elections, called what is left of the White House press corps to the Oval Office to see him sign an executive order – designating the room a national monument.

But after the signing, he was asked about reports he intended to return to bombing raids on Iran.

“We control everything that we want to control,” he said. “And now we make a decision. Do we want to go further, by certifying it? And by certifying I mean, making sure that it’ll never happen again.”

He added: “I would rather not destroy the rest of the country if possible. But maybe I’ll have to. You’ll know soon enough.”

He was also asked about a meeting with a Russian envoy at the Oval Office today.

The envoy was attending a pseudo-peace summit hosted by Melania Trump, who has been engaging in back-channel communications with Vladimir Putin that diplomats around the world find truly baffling.

“I think we’re going to be close to settling Russia and Ukraine,” Trump said.

But asked if he’d met with the envoy, Trump said he had.

He added: “I can’t tell you what we discussed. But I’m just telling you there’s going to be an agreement, it’s going to be a big agreement, and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine. I could even say it’s going to involve all of Europe. It’s going to be a big beautiful agreement and everyone’s going to be thrilled.”

He did not meet with the representative from Ukraine.

In keeping with this week’s theme, the order was about the design of the Oval Office itself – designating it a national monument, meaning any physical changes to it would require congressional approval.

President Trump has spent time during his second term glamming up the Oval, installing countless gold-coloured mouldings on the wall and hanging giant mirrors and placing gaudy trinkets wherever space allows.

He reportedly used Krazy glue to stick gold medallions to the fireplace. And just yesterday he gave reporters a tour of the building site for his opulent new vanity ballroom, to make way for which he demolished more than a third of the White House complex.

Outside the Oval, he has had “The Oval Office” painted on the wall in gold cursive script. And he installed a “Presidential Walk Of Fame” on the Colonnade, the outdoor walkway to the Oval, featuring photographs of every president bar one, with descriptions of each in his own unmistakable style. Where Joe Biden’s portrait is supposed to be is a photograph of an autopen.

It’s unclear if Trump’s modifications would be covered by the order, but he said no major changes could be made going forward “without the approval of Congress.”

“So if they want to ⁠say ‘let’s not have Oval anymore, let’s make it square’, what happens is they have ⁠to go back to Congress, and hopefully the Congress… will ⁠be smart enough not to let that happen.”

Democrats took control of both houses of Congress in Tuesday’s election. It is unlikely they would block any move to reverse Trump’s changes, when he leaves office.

“I’m going to be signing a document which will make them into a landmark for the ages,” he said. “It won’t be able to be taken down, destroyed, touched, or anything else. It’s a federal landmark. And when completed, and when we get the documentation fully done, legally binding, it’ll make it impossible for anybody ever to destroy this incredible space.”

A reporter noted that Hillary Clinton had criticised his use of gold in decorating.

“She did?” He replied. “I don’t like her house either. I know her house very well.

“The Oval Office is a place of victory. See the white wall? There’s no gold on that. The exterior of the White House, there’s no gold.”