The week
The Trump team fired the White House chief assistant just before Biden took office, perhaps at Biden’s request
When President Biden and First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, arrived at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, there was no chief to greet them. He was fired at about 11:30 am, half an hour before Biden took office as president, reports The New York Times. Former First Lady Melania Trump hired Chief Porter Timothy Harleth of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC in 2017, after previous housewife Angella Reid was fired a few months after Donald Trump’s term. . The White House chief usher is responsible for the residence of the first family, overseeing everything from personnel issues to budgets. It is usually an apolitical job, and the ushers usually remain for several administrations. Reid, hired in 2011, was only the ninth housekeeper since 1885, although she was the first woman hired for the job. The Bidens told the White House council that they intended to bring in their own chief porter, a person familiar with the process told The Times. A Biden White House official told CNN that Harleth “was dismissed before the Bidens arrived”, although CNN reports that it was the Bidens who gave him the ax. However, Harleth was already in trouble with the Trump team. He “found himself in an untenable position” since the election, “trying to begin preparations for a new resident in the White House, although his occupant refused to admit that he would be leaving the premises,” reports the Times. And Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was “unhappy” with Harleth “for trying to send briefings about the residence to Biden’s transition team in November.” Harleth “worked with Jill Biden’s team for weeks to organize moving house belongings,” adds The Washington Post. The absence of a chief porter was a manifestation of the chaotic transition period, but it does not fully explain the curious loophole in the protocol where no one opened the door to BIdens when they arrived at the White House, notes the Times. The doors, which were awkwardly closed for about 10 long seconds while the Bidens watched, are usually opened by Navy guards. Once the Bidens went through the newly cleaned White House doors, things improved, the Post reports. “Waiting for Biden in a room adjacent to the Oval Office were two trays full of chocolate chip cookies, each in plastic wrap with a gold presidential seal.” More stories from theweek.com’s next executive order Biden will let people go unemployed if they leave an unsecured job 7 brutally funny caricatures about Trump’s departure from the White House McConnell is already moving to strangle Biden’s presidency