The current chief usher, Timothy Harleth, worked at the Trump International Hotel in Washington before he got the job. GOP senator hopes Trump will attend inauguration That in itself presents a similar challenge that Trump is only making more difficult. Trump is the first one-term president since Bush.

“The ownership is of the family that’s there, but you have to be watching out for what’s going to occur,” Walters told me. It was particularly difficult when President Ford, President Carter, and President George H.W. Gary Walters, who served as chief usher from 1986 until 2007, started gathering information on the candidates during the primaries, well before a general election candidate was selected. This is when the chief usher prepares books for the incoming president and first lady (with the added challenge of not knowing who they will be) that include a detailed White House layout, a list of staff, and an overview of allowable changes to the Oval Office. For residence workers, who stay in their jobs for decades and are not loyal to any one president but to the presidency itself, the transition to the next administration typically begins about eighteen months before inauguration. They deserve a president who will help them – or at least not stand in their way – when they do what they do best and help facilitate the peaceful transfer of power happening in a few weeks.Įvery piece of what happens on Inauguration Day is the result of months of careful advance planning and is part of a long-held tradition that has either been willfully discarded or seemingly forgotten during the Trump years.

There are nearly one hundred people who make the White House run every day, including butlers, florists, housekeepers, cooks, ushers and engineers. I grew to know many people who worked on the residence when I was researching my book, “ The Residence,” and it was difficult to watch them be made so vulnerable to one President’s irresponsible whims. We know that at least four residence staffers tested positive for the coronavirus as the President and many of his aides refused to follow Covid-19 protocols, including mask-wearing. The President is making the job of the dedicated residence staff harder than necessary.

Kate brower the residence