President Donald Trump is furious over the details in the new book published by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan that paint him as a slob.
Last week, before the book was released, a section was leaked by The Daily Mail that described the president lying in bed, eating and throwing wrappers and containers onto the floor or piling in an overflowing trash can near him.
“A nighttime snacker, the president would frequently leave an array of empty potato chip bags, Starbucks wrappers and ice cream cartons in the trash, or on the floor,” the book says.
It added that, “The staff had to begin monitoring the trash after it was discovered he was sometimes throwing out White House sterling silver utensils.”
First lady Melania Trump doesn’t sleep in the same room with him, when she’s in Washington D.C.
Zeteo reported in its morning newsletter from Asawin Suebsaeng that the president is furious about how it makes him appear to the public.
“It makes him look so f—— gross,” a senior Trump appointee told Zeteo. “The president sees everything, and he knows about the —trash and bathroom sections, and thinks it’s complete bulls—— that it got published.”
The bathroom incident the appointee referenced is a story about the president loving carpet in his bathroom, something generally considered to be unsanitary, Southern Hospitality explained in 2011. The preference prompted White House staff to fear that mold might grow under the carpet.
So, they fashioned a way to hide a “bath mat” for Trump to drip on after showering.
“The portion nearest the shower would often be soaked through; the staff was never quite sure why, but they worried about mold growing underneath,” Haberman and Swan reported.
Trump is reportedly so furious that he’s going around telling people, “I don’t do that!” He then alleged it was “libel” and attacked the leaks he said are false as an invasion of his privacy.
Suebsaeng wrote that some of the aides “have sat there and thought to themselves: Uh… yeah, you do.”
He also reported that there is a blanket ban on talking about the book because Trump doesn’t want to acknowledge the book exists.