Trump Was Right! White House Plagued by Cockroaches, Mice, and Broken Toilet Seats
Trump Was Right! White House Plagued by Cockroaches, Mice, and Broken Toilet Seats
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President Donald Trump came under fire after he reportedly called the White House a “real dump” this summer. But you know something? It turns out he might have been right about the 132-room, 217-year-old mansion after all. Lately the evidence has been mounting that the People’s House could use a foundation-to-ceiling, HGTV-style makeover. Sledgehammers included!
The most disgusting complaint? The mansion has a serious vermin problem, with unsettling reports of mice and roaches holing up in the West Wing. In fact, the White House has had at least four cockroach infestations of late, according to work orders obtained by NBC4 Washington.
And while chief of staff John Kelly was brought in to impose some order over the administration, he hasn’t been able to do much about the bug problem in his own base of operations. There have been reports of an ant problem in his office, according to the complaints. Shudder.
On the less-creepy-crawly spectrum, there were also more mundane fixer-upper requests. They included things such as installing a new toilet seat in the Oval Office bathroom, refinishing the legs of two Martha Washington chairs in Vice President Mike Pence‘s office, and hanging new draperies in first lady Melania Trump‘s East Wing office.
About $3.4 million in renovations began on the White House over the summer. A chunk of it went to staffers who yearned to personalize their new office digs. (For example, after the inauguration, then–press secretary Sean Spicer asked for new furniture.) But a big portion of it was allocated to fixing up the place. One of the main problems was the mansion’s air-conditioning and cooling system, which was on the fritz. Other work included new cables and wires to be put into walls, and de-yellowing carpets from the Obama administration.
Making even the most minor repairs is complicated due to the age of the White House—and the historical significance of the building and the furniture within it. Seemingly mundane things like wallpaper, moldings, and even paint must receive some special TLC.
“Any of us who have old houses know old houses need a lot of work,” former U.S. General Services Administration Inspector General Brian Miller told NBC4Washinton. The administration manages maintenance requests in the White House’s West and East Wings.
This isn’t the first time the White House has been in desperate need of renovation work, says Vicki Goldberg, author of “The White House: The President’s Home in Photographs and History.”
It was nearly destroyed in the War of 1812, underwent a big expansion in the early part of the 20th century, and was reconstructed in the 1950s.
“Things are going to wear,” Goldberg says. “It’s the nature of the world.”
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