The care of the Whitehouse and grounds is the purview of the First Lady. Tradition cemented in a trust.
Title to the Whitehouse and Grounds is not in the name of the American people or the American government. The Blair family of Virginia were the original owners of the property, donated it for the presidential residence, in a trust to be held in perpetuity by the sitting First Lady. Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, Teddy's second wife, transferred the trust to the newly formed National Parks Dept. with approval of the Blair family. The NPD has traditionally kept the First Ladies as Primary Trustee for the trust.
Blair House is across the street from the Whitehouse, built almost simultaneously. After a fire in the West Wing during the last year of the Hoover administration, and the complete subsequent gutting of the Whitehouse during Truman's administration, led to Truman and his family residing at Blair House during most of his administration. Today, because of poor maintenance policies since the Eisenhower administration, Trump is considering gutting the Whitehouse again. The structure is vermin ridden, a fire hazard and general safety hazard, as well as having out of date wiring and communications, along with security issues. This time he believes the rebuilding can be accomplished in less than six months. With his history as a real property developer, there is no reason to doubt him. His developer reputation was always of doing champagne work under budget and ahead of schedule. One of the main reasons he was popular with investors. The National Parks Dept. has made a budgetary request to the Dept. of Interior, which in turn has made a request of Congress for a 2019 inclusion in the national budget. Estimated construction costs of $82 mil. That's about considerably less than it would cost me to build a similar sized house, excluding land costs, and particular Whitehouse needs, than I would spend for new construction. In the days of billion $ mansions, a modest request. The plan calls for a reduction from 132 rooms to 96 rooms, removal of all furnishings held together with scotch tape, costing more to restore than worth.
A recently built Long Island NY mansion with 82 rooms and two 7,000 sq ft guest cottages was recently built at a cost of $710 mil. It has been discretely listed for sale at $1.2 bil, expected to sell for $1.1 bil including the land on the Gold Coast. It may sell for more as there has been an active expression of interest.
It seems the sitting idiot is not the First Ladies or the Presidents who have lived and live in the Whitehouse, but a specific ranting citizen who doesn't know the history of the Whitehouse from Shinola.
