Confessions of a White House staffer: Nato and nutty professors

We were able to get back at the media in a small way — scheduling the press tour of the Christmas decorations for 5 a.m. on a Monday morning

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Christmas decorations are on display in the Grand Foyer at the White House
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While it’s a bit disappointing to be back at work after a few days off for Thanksgiving, the staff definitely seems to be in a cheerier mood than normal thanks to Christmas being just a few weeks away. We were finishing up the final touches on the White House Christmas decorations over the weekend, including making some last minute edits on Melania’s video reveal. It almost seems like a waste to spend so much time on preparations, because we know the media is going to dump on them anyway.But we were able to get back…

While it’s a bit disappointing to be back at work after a few days off for Thanksgiving, the staff definitely seems to be in a cheerier mood than normal thanks to Christmas being just a few weeks away. We were finishing up the final touches on the White House Christmas decorations over the weekend, including making some last minute edits on Melania’s video reveal. It almost seems like a waste to spend so much time on preparations, because we know the media is going to dump on them anyway.

But we were able to get back at the media in a small way — scheduling the press tour of the decorations for 5 a.m. on a Monday morning. It was pretty satisfying to see them shivering out in the cold with bags under their eyes. What made it even better was that the White House pastry chefs happened to be whipping up fresh batches of gingerbread cookies that the reporters had to smell while they waited to get into the East Wing.

The tours overall are going off without a hitch, which is more than I can say for POTUS’s trip to the Nato summit. If they thought Trudeau’s joke about Trump being late to everything was bad, they should have heard what the foreign government staffers said when we went to grab drinks at a local pub. Some snobby Macron staffer had one too many glasses of champagne and started droning on about how Trump is so ‘uncultured’ and ‘typically American’. If that gets back to her boss she could suffer the same fate as the late Madeleine Westerhout.

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Of course, while we were gone, the Democrats held their first impeachment hearing in House Judiciary. Nadler completely failed to control the room and the female lawyer put her foot in her mouth with that crack about Barron’s name, so we’re all feeling pretty secure right now. Tony Sayegh hopped on a call with surrogates this week to make sure they’re all on message. The one drawback of having rabid supporters is that they’re usually a little nutty. One guy insisted the White House call the three lawyers who testified ‘co-conspirators’. Tony did a good job of letting the guy down gently, but I’m sure he’ll still be on some local conservative talk show tomorrow shouting about his great nickname for the witnesses.

The countdown to Christmas continues!