Though Trump denies telling his golf buddies that the White House is “a real dump,” it’d apparently be more honest of him to stand by his alleged statement that the historic building is disgusting. According to the White House’s work orders obtained by NBC, the Trump administration has been dealing with broken toilet seats, hard-to-use trashcans, and bug and mice infestations this past year.
Given to the U.S. General Services Administration, many of the hundreds of requests involve typical housekeeping duties, such as moving furniture and hanging paintings. Trump also appeared to be unimpressed with the Oval Office’s toilet seat, as he requested a new one — though he asked for it to be replaced “after hours, please.” When you gotta go, you gotta go, sometimes on a seat that your behind deems subpar!
And then, there’s the vermin. This past year, there were at least four reported cockroach infestations, a complaint about ants, and requests for mice traps. In one instance, not a single person on staff was able to pick up a dead mouse.
The recent documents show a White House staff that is incapable of accomplishing extremely basic tasks, like putting trash inside the trash can, not outside.
However, it would be remiss not to recognize that the White House has been waging a war on bugs for at least a decade. According to a New York Times article from 2009, Obama’s White House suffered from so serious a fly infestation that staff members were reportedly issued fly swatters to be prepared to kill intruders at any moment. It’s unclear if these were the same fly swatters that George W. Bush’s staff kept in their drawers, as Bush’s former spokesman Dana Perino alleged that they “always had a lot of fly swatters at the ready, too.”
