The scuzziness has nothing to do with the current occupant. As Jenny Starrs noted for The Washington Post, the White House is a centuries-old mansion whose original designers and occupants, whatever their foresight regarding matters of governance, never planned for the plumbing, wiring, extensions and HVAC systems that would be tacked on in future decades.
President Harry S. Truman imagined the building was haunted, Starr noted — and so dilapidated that he had the place overhauled in the 1940s.
That was the White House’s last major renovation, and many a smirch has accumulated since. President Bill Clinton had a little asbestos problem in the 1990s — when his family returned from vacation once to find their bedrooms unusable while a work crew finished up, according to the New York Times.
And then there are the maggots.
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