Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the preparations, personnel decisions and policy deliberations of Donald Trump’s transition. POLITICO Pro subscribers receive a version of this newsletter first. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren | Email Lisa | Email Megan DONALD TRUMP is a man of routine when it comes to his diet. ANDRE RUSH, a chef who worked in the White House kitchen during Trump’s first term, says the president-elect did not like diversity in his meals — and rarely snacked. His diet is well known: hamburgers and fast food, washed down with some Diet Coke. But Rush insists Trump does “try” to be healthy and is encouraging Trump’s White House chefs to push him further by “manipulating his diet.” Rush, who also worked under BILL CLINTON, GEORGE W. BUSH and BARACK OBAMA, told West Wing Playbook in an interview that Trump may need to cut back — but not cut out — his not-so-guilty pleasures going into his redemption tour. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Donald Trump is eight years older than when he last came into office. If you were serving in his next term, how would his diet weigh on you? He’s 78. That’s a big, big, big difference from when he first came into office. Now, it’s going to be a lot more hectic, as he has a lot more to prove. I would try to incorporate as many healthy food items as I possibly could. Especially because he's known for not drinking water. He's always been on his soda trip. That's all he drinks, 24/7. He's been living off it and says, “It hasn't hurt me yet.” But that's a cliche we all go through until it hurts you. I would think about maybe adding a flavoring — whether it’s the orange, lime or lemon — into his water to make it go down quicker. You have said White House chefs may have to “manipulate” his food to try to get him to eat more healthy. Can you elaborate? Does that mean sneaking some tomatoes and lettuce in his burgers? Let's say he wants a burger. Instead of doing full grounds, I'll go half and half with turkey and put a little bit more [flavor] profiles inside of it. If he wants bacon on it, instead of pork, I’d use beef bacon, which is more crispy and more healthy. I’d make sweet potato fries or battered fries made out of vegetables with a homemade dipping sauce. There are a couple different ways I would manipulate his diet. You can take some risks by putting a couple little extra things on a plate, even if it's not asked for. We have an idea of Trump’s favorite cuisine — meat, potatoes and fast food. What would surprise us about his diet? He gets so much flack about the unhealthy side of him. He does try to eat healthy, but people don't get to see that part of it. They just see the part that we want to show on social media. I mean, Bill Clinton ate just as many burgers as Donald Trump did. Was there ever a time where you made something for Trump and he turned it down? You don't want to rock the boat in the first term. You have a new boss coming in, so you tread cautiously. If he wants a burger, if he wants a taco salad, if he wants a salmon, once you get to know him better, you can manipulate it by saying, “Oh, he’ll like it this way.” You have to be political on that. You can't just go in hard charging, saying, “I'm going to give him this, I'm going to give him that.” I get to know the principals first, and let them know me, put eyes on me so they can say, “Okay, he must know what he's doing and why he's doing it.” If you were to give his White House chefs a piece of advice, what would that be? Get to know him a lot deeper than what a piece of paper says. Get to his psyche so you can understand why he eats, what he eats and what he does. That'll be the way to encourage and engage him a lot more. A lot of things he doesn’t eat is because he’s not used to it. Does Trump snack? He doesn’t. At least not in the normal way. Some people like their M&Ms or their jelly beans or their almonds. He just runs, runs, runs, all the time. White House lore is that Trump had a button to get someone to bring him a Diet Coke. Is that true? That’s true. Which president was the easiest to cook for? Hardest? Easiest by far was President Obama, because they had the garden and wanted to get everything from the garden. The hardest was Trump. There was not a lot of diversity to it. As a chef, you want to be able to explore and have more fun. With him and [Melania Trump], it was black and white. MESSAGE US — Are you GEORGE GLASS? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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