In 2006, British author Peter York wrote a book, Dictator Chic, in which he identified all the design characteristics that autocrats’ homes have in common: gaudy gold-detailing, faux 18th-century French furniture, buildings of ludicrous scale and more. As York writes, President Donald Trump’s Manhattan penthouse would fit right in. Here’s a closer look at the aesthetic style of dictator’s past—the glass and the marble, the mirrors and the self-portraits—and how Trump’s own style compares.



The main sitting room at Trump’s Manhattan apartment follows almost every rule of “dictator style”: marble pillars set against marble walls, low-hanging glass chandeliers and over-sized period furniture—so far apart, it would be hard to have a conversation.

Sam Horine