Trumps accused of treating White House staff like ‘concierge’

Donald Trump has been accused of treating White House staff like a “concierge” service during his time in the executive mansion.

Jonathan Lee, who served in the calligrapher’s office in the White House until he was fired in 2017, told The New Yorker that the former president and his family treated staff like a “twenty-four-hour concierge desk”.

Mr Lee, who served in a political role under the former president, Barack Obama, made the claim in a feature about the role of White House staff that was published on Wednesday.

Mr Trump bragged on numerous occasions about the services available to him at the White House and even had a button installed on the Resolute desk that when pressed would call for a staff member to bring him a diet coke on a silver platter.

Other former staff members who had worked in the White House under several different administrations told The New Yorker that there was a marked difference between their roles under the Obamas and the Trumps.

The former employees said that Mr Obama’s family, who had never had housekeepers or a staff before moving to the White House, kept distance from the butlers as they craved privacy, while the Trumps used the services available to them.

Staffers also claimed that there were other differences under Mr Trump, as overtime pay became more limited, while his chief usher Timothy Harleth made changes to how the executive mansion was run.

Mr Harleth reportedly managed the White House more like a hotel than the official residence for the president and hired several former colleagues from the Trump International Hotel and the Mandarin Oriental.

Former colleagues told The New Yorker that they also felt Mr Harleth was hostile to employees who had worked at the White House over several administrations.