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 Megan Today is the end of our special edition Pro newsletter during the transition. If you liked this newsletter and want to continue receiving content like this, subscribe to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook. Monday is not just Inauguration Day but another carefully choreographed quadrennial occurrence: Move-in day at the White House. It’s a highly disciplined operation coordinated by the White House residence’s chief usher, a position currently held by ROBERT B. DOWNING, that involves the residence’s 100 or so full-time staff scurrying around with moving boxes, repainting rooms and rearranging furniture. And it’s all scheduled around the transition of power at 12:01 p.m. Monday, when the incoming president takes the oath of office. ANITA McBRIDE, who was former first lady LAURA BUSH’s chief of staff during the 2009 transition, described it as “organized chaos.” “Everybody knows what job they have,” McBride said. “You can almost picture it, a lot of people coming and going and moving room to room and doing what their designated job is.” Residence staff began planning for DONALD TRUMP’s 2017 move into the White House a year before Inauguration Day — long before they knew who would win the 2016 election — said ANGELLA REID, who was chief usher during BARACK OBAMA’s administration and oversaw the last transition to Trump. Turning over the White House is a delicate process, she said, that involves starting to make preparations and gathering information in a “diplomatic” way — especially if a president is in their first term and running for their second, and residence staff has to make plans for whichever way the election goes. “It’s really a very tightly managed ballet,” Reid said. The work begins — 4:30 a.m. During the last Trump move-in, Reid’s day began around 4:30 a.m., as staff began preparing for the new family to arrive and made final arrangements for the departing family. The staff typically gathers to say goodbye to the outgoing first family around 8:30 a.m., while the incoming president and first lady — who have usually stayed overnight at the president’s guest residence, Blair House, attend church. This year, Trump will visit St. John’s, where he attended a service before his inauguration eight years ago (and also where he famously held up a Bible as part of a photo op during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the city.) The joint tea — Mid-morning After church, the incoming first family heads to the White House for tea hosted by the president and the first lady on the State Floor and typically attended by Congressional leadership, a tradition that the Obamas participated in when the Trumps moved in (though there was no such welcome for JOE BIDEN and JILL BIDEN in 2021). Biden, who has invited Trump to the White House on the morning of the inauguration, appears to be restoring the tradition. The movers take over — 10:30 a.m. Traditionally, the two first families depart by motorcade at the North Portico around 10:30 a.m. and head toward the Capitol — which is when the White House staff springs into action. The last of the outgoing president’s belongings are loaded onto trucks, while pieces that were on loan from the White House’s permanent collection are returned to storage. Then, the incoming president’s things are moved into the executive residence, into the Diplomatic Reception Room or another holding room, mostly by the White House residence staff with assistance from a small outside moving team. One of the biggest challenges? The elevator. Reid said the fact that there’s only one elevator that goes directly into the residence can slow down the process, calling the lift the “little engine that could.” The more the outgoing family has packed up ahead of time, the easier it is on the residence staff on Inauguration Day, those familiar with the process said. In 2009, the Bush family had already moved most of their belongings to Texas, leaving just a few boxes to be picked up by a truck or put on a plane to fly with them on Jan. 20. The staff also thoroughly cleans the house — it went through a major disinfection process last time, during the Covid-19 pandemic — and begins switching out the decor, repainting and rearranging rooms and adjusting the temperature according to the new first family’s preferences. (One of the first notable changes when Trump took office in 2017 was the swap of red to gold curtains in the Oval Office. Biden has kept the gold curtains.) “If President Trump has chosen from the current White House collection a different rug, a different drapery, then those will go out and the new ones will come in, so that as much as possible, any wall art or sculptures or flags or draperies or rugs or furniture that President Trump would have selected that is available would be there when he comes in [to the Oval Office] for the first time that evening,” said STEWART McLAURIN, president of the White House Historical Association. MELANIA TRUMP, in a recent interview with “Fox and Friends,” said she is already packed and has selected the furniture that will go into the White House. "I know the rooms where we will be living. I know the process. The first time was challenging. We didn't have much of the information,” she said. The closing ceremonies — around 5:30 p.m. In all, it’s a five- or six-hour process that culminates sometime between 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., when the first family returns to the White House after the swearing-in ceremony and the Congressional luncheon. Trump is also expected to make a pit stop to say hi to supporters at Capital One arena, who will gather there instead of on the National Mall because of forecasted dangerously cold temperatures. The chef will have typically prepared a meal of the new first family’s choosing, and staff will have prepared for any family members who may be staying overnight. Then, they’ll head to the inaugural balls and any other events happening that night. Trump is scheduled to attend three balls Monday evening: the “Commander in Chief Ball,” the “Liberty Inaugural Ball” and the “Starlight Ball.” MESSAGE US — Are you JOE BIDEN? 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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