The Commuter Presidency Of The Trumps

There are things that go with being the First Lady and the President of the United States.

One of those things is moving into the White House in Washington, DC.

As reported by the Washington Post, “Melania Trump’s decision to not to live in the White House, at least for now, appears unprecedented. Nearly every first lady has taken up residence there. According to the White House Historical Association, George Washington and his wife, Martha Washington, did not live in the White House because it hadn’t been built yet. Also, first lady Anna Harrison, whose husband, William Henry Harrison, was the ninth president of the United States, never moved into the executive mansion because her husband died one month after his swearing-in.”

Some additional reports have surfaced that Melania may never move into the White House with her husband, Donald Trump, the President-Elect.

Why? Because Melania values her independence and her life in New York.

Unfortunately, the First Lady has duties and responsibilities that are VERY hard to accomplish from a different city. Melania clearly does not know what she signed on for as potential First Lady, and she clearly has no idea what is expected of her in that role, since she thinks that she can fulfill those obligations from her cozy New York penthouse.

If Melania didn’t want to do the job of being First Lady, she never should have said yes to her husband’s running for President of the United States.

Donald Trump has already asked White House insiders about how much time he’ll be expected to spend in the White House. It appears that he wants to be President of the United States from 9-5 from Monday through Friday. Otherwise, he wants to live his New York life as chief executive of The Trump Organization.

(He has said that he will put his children in charge of running The Trump Organization in a “blind trust.” Clearly, he does not know what a blind trust is. A blind trust is when you put all your assets into a trust and a group of trustees — NOT YOUR CHILDREN — manages the assets without your knowing anything about what happens to those assets.)

This is clearly a case of what those of us in employment circles call “bad fit.” It’s when you’ve hired someone for a job who isn’t willing to accept all that the job requires.

Having a President and First Lady who view doing those jobs as commuter-jobs or part-time gigs — when the reality of doing those jobs requires a full-time commitment — is not a case of good fit.

I never thought Trump wanted to do the work of being President — nor did I think that Melania wanted to do the job of being First Lady — and these recent developments confirm those thoughts.

This is not encouraging.

It’s not encouraging for the United States.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.