The President’s quest for ‘perfect’ hair starts with the shower

Perhaps this will help alleviate Trump’s ongoing struggle against water flow and prevent him from playing tangents at White House events like this last month: “So shower heads – you shower, the water is not coming out. You wash your hands “The water isn’t coming out. So what are you doing? You just stand there longer or shower longer? Because my hair – I don’t know about you, but it has to be perfect. Perfect.”

It is not just 2020 that has expressed its anger against weak waters. Trump railed against it last year at a roundtable with managing directors.

“We have a situation where we look very closely at sinks and showers and other elements of bathrooms where you turn the faucet on – and in areas where there is tremendous amount of water where the water rushes into the ocean because You never could. If you handle it, you won’t get any water, “said the president. “You turn on the tap and you don’t get any water. They shower and water is dripping out. Just dripping out, very quietly it drips out.”

It can sometimes be difficult to tell if Trump’s problem is due to his obsession with getting his ideal hairstyle (he does his famous swoop-over look himself, depending on who knows his styling habits) or the actual water, that does (or doesn’t get his hair wet in this case. Based on indicators, there appears to be a case for the latter.

The White House has had installation issues in the past, mainly due to age and wear and tear. A building as massive as the Volkshaus, roughly 55,000 square meters in size, and built before there were even indoor installations, is sure to have challenges. Pipes that have been moved and updated over the decades, toilets added due to the different needs of the first family’s individual preferences, inevitably caused backups.

For example, there are 15 bathrooms on the second and third floors of Trump’s private residence alone – six on the floor where the president sleeps, nine on the floor where the solarium, gym, game room, and first lady are private hair and make-up salon and several guest rooms.

Given the ongoing public complaints, one might assume that the main problem is to blame for the shower in Trump’s own master bathroom, which is part of the President’s suite. Perhaps he didn’t like the pressure of the shower the Obamas had in front of them, which was also specially installed – something the two presidents have in common is the desire for specific shower heads.

In 2017, then-White House chief Stephen Rochon told CNN that before President Barack Obama’s arrival, staff would have to “crawl” to find the “perfect rain shower head.”

“One thing that we were very aware of is that the new president wanted a special shower head,” Rochon said. The White House did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Plumbing over time

The administration proposes relaxing shower head standards after Trump lamented water flow

Obama and Trump aren’t the only presidents with peccadillos.

John Quincy Adams insisted that a pump be installed from the well of the finance building in the White House, not for bathing – this is what the Potomac River was intended for – but so that he, an avid gardener, could care for his plants and flowers according to materials the White House Historical Association.

Andrew Jackson was the first President in 1833 to actually pour the water into the White House building and order it to be drawn from a newly purchased well near Franklin Square in downtown Washington, DC and sent to the White House but it wasn’t like that. By Franklin Pierce, permanent bathroom fittings with hot and cold running water were added in the east wing.

Before Pierce, Martin Van Buren, apparently an advocate of bathing equipment, had lugged copper tubs into the residence for himself and his family, according to White House historians; The task of filling them with hot water was up to the housekeepers.

Chester Arthur wanted to enlarge the President’s private bathroom by combining two smaller, more public ones, the former White House boss wrote in a 1934 story in the Saturday Evening Post.

A major modern update to the plumbing of the White House came after the massive renovation by Harry S. Truman from 1948 to 1952. When Truman returned to the White House from across the street from Blair House, where he and his family lived during construction, had his new bathtub according to an article in Plumbing and Manufacturing magazine. The message read: “In this tub bathes the man whose heart is always clean and truthfully serves his people.”

Lyndon B. Johnson’s shower problems

Despite the varying proportions and personal grooming habits of previous presidents, none was as consumed with showering as Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson, it seems, could give Trump a run for his money when it comes to complaints about water pressure.

Kate Andersen Brower, a CNN commentator and author of “The Residence,” said the two presidents had similarities in personality, and while Trump continued to think about water during a global pandemic, “Johnson did the same in Vietnam.”

“He was an egomaniac preoccupied with his shower obsession,” said Brower.

At the time, the White House plumber was a man named Reds Arrington, who, as Brower writes in “The Residence,” was “tortured” by LBJ’s obsession with White House water pressure, which he wanted “like a fire hose.” and temperature he required to be as hot as possible.

“When (Johnson) found out that a new shower for the president would require laying a new pipe and installing a new pump, Johnson asked the military to pay for it. The project, which cost tens of thousands of dollars, was paid for classified funds earmarked for security purposes, “wrote Brower, adding that Johnson would still phone Reds and scream his displeasure, once roaring,” If I can move ten thousand soldiers in a day, you can be sure to fix any bathroom the way I can I want it! “

Johnson’s bizarre shower also featured mirrors on the ceiling. When Richard Nixon moved in, “he took one look at the lavish interior and said, ‘Get rid of this stuff,'” said Brower.

It’s hard to say if Trump will ever find satisfactory water pressure, only time will tell, but America will likely hear about it.

Trump has not limited his focus to showers either, at times focusing on what he calls “low-flow” toilets. He has often said in public comments that flushing just isn’t what it used to be.

“People flush the toilet 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once,” the president said at an event in the White House last December.

While it’s unclear exactly who the prolific dishwashers are on Trump’s mind, he is known for his pride in White House bathrooms, according to a 2017 story published by the New York Times: “Mr. Trump is naturally talkative and loves He has a strange affinity for showing bathrooms, including one he renovated near the Oval Office. “

The new water pressure regulations announced this week are the first indicator that Trump’s long national nightmare about shower heads may be coming to an end.

“President Trump has promised the American people to reduce burdensome federal regulations for the American consumer, and this proposed shower head regulation does just that,” Shaylyn Hynes, spokeswoman for the Department of Energy, told CNN in a statement.

If adopted, Hynes said, the rule would “allow Americans – not Washington bureaucrats – to choose what kind of shower heads they have in their homes.”

And with these shower heads, even Trump could feel better about himself as he strives to achieve what he calls his “beautiful” hair.

“Oh, I’m trying like hell to hide this bald spot folks. I’m working hard on it,” Trump said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2018. “It doesn’t look bad. Hey, we’re hanging on, we’re hanging in, we’re hanging in. Right? We’re hanging in together.”

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the year Andrew Jackson ordered water to be brought to the White House.

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