Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has offered a pointed suggestion for what he called the horrible interior design of President Donald Trump's White House renovations: hire a gay friend.

"It's really bad. He needs a gay friend. Look at all of this, I hate to say, tacky s---. And he thinks this is good. It looks like a Michaels. [There's] gold everywhere. It's like King Midas got trapped inside of a Cheesecake Factory," Lemon said with a laugh in a post shared to his Instagram account.

Lemon's critique arrives as Trump confronts mounting backlash over his renovation and construction plans at the executive mansion. Much of the criticism has centered on cost, scale, and the demolition itself; Lemon's comments pull the aesthetics into the debate as well. The president has come under fire since the historic East Wing was demolished to make way for a proposed 90,000-square-foot state ballroom that could seat roughly 1,000 guests. The project, estimated to cost between $300 million and $600 million or more, also includes plans for a six-story underground military complex.

Additional renovations include a multimillion-dollar helipad covering approximately 80,000 square feet of the South Lawn. Built with Italian granite, the helipad is intended to protect the lawn from damage caused by Marine One's exhaust.

Inside the White House, Trump's own aides are reportedly growing increasingly frustrated and concerned that the president remains fixated on the renovations, questioning his priorities as the administration grapples with the fallout from its devastating midterm election defeat. That internal strain places the construction project at the center of two converging pressures: public criticism of the building plans and private questions about where the president's attention is going.

"In this current trajectory, there's no shot this is salvageable," one former White House official, who remains in touch with current staff, said of Trump's MAGA agenda in remarks to MS Now. "What is the president's focus these last two years? It's probably renovations."

"The president's attention is all over the place," said another former White House official who remains close to the administration. "How many people are preparing briefs on what marble to pick for X project?"

According to the reporting, staffers are now preparing to leave. "There is no holding back on the desire to leave now," a former official said. "Some are making calls to try and jump ship." Others are being advised to seek legal counsel as a "precaution."

One former Trump administration official described the mood at the White House as "pain," adding, "Everybody's going to start infighting."

As departures and firings unravel, one staffer told MS Now, "It's going to be hell…No one is going to work there — you have to be independently wealthy." The person was referring to White House staff salaries relative to those in the private sector. With the ballroom, underground complex, and helipad still in the plans, and staff described as readying exits, the two storylines to follow from here are how far the renovation push advances and how many staffers act on their stated desire to leave.