Presidential Perks Gone Royal
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Until FDR’s presidency, the regal old executive Building next to the White House held all the offices of the government’s executive branches. The staff of today’s president completely fills the old executive Building―now renamed the Eisenhower executive office Building—while also filling three large office buildings across Pennsylvania Avenue.
To help with the burdens of the presidency, today’s commander-in-chief has a chief of staff, a press secretary, and other assistants who make rare appearances in the news. Since only these few are seen in the news, the public is generally unaware of the small army of unseen personal assistants who actually do a good measure of that job for him and might more accurately be called assistant or substitute presidents.
President Lincoln answered his own mail, but back then there were seldom more than 20 letters a day. Today, the White House has to process tens of thousands of letters and e-mails a day. In 2009, the budget just for screening the White House mail was over $25,000,000! With the White House estimate of over a million pieces of mail handled annually, basic math tells us that taxpayers are spending $25 to deal with each piece. And almost none of this mail or e-mail directly reaches the man to whom all are addressed.
The president is the only American who has his own personal zip code. Mail from family and close friends bears this code so that those letters will go directly to the chief executive. In most cases, as happened with President Reagan, the private zip code has to be changed from time to time as relatives and close friends yield to the pressure of their friends and share the number.
Unless a letter addressed to the president carries his secret zip code, the odds are overwhelming that he never will know of its contents. The rare exceptions are when the presidential speechwriters personalize the chief executive’s remarks in a nationally-broadcast speech to warm them up with a folksy anecdote; for instance: “I received a letter the other day from little Timmy O’Brien in Akron, Ohio. Timmy wrote me that his mother…” That technique gives the impression that the president reads every letter addressed to him. Sure, and so does Santa Claus!
Other than letters used by a president to make these kinds of humanizing points in his speeches, a president sees only those that the person reading the letters believes will lift his day or give him a laugh. I once passed Eisenhower a letter from a young girl inviting him to her birthday party. “I am only asking a few guests,” she wrote, “You, the Queen of England, and Lassie.”
My first appointment in the Eisenhower White House was Director of Presidential Patronage where I was responsible for screening and recommending men and women for potential presidential appointments to lofty government positions. Recommendations came from United States Senators and Congressmen, from governors and private citizens. No matter how he or she had been recommended, unless a candidate passed my scrutiny, the president might never have become aware of the candidate’s desire or availability.
It was a heady assignment for a thirty-year-old and it gave me a great deal of power in determining the membership of the Federal Trade Commission, the next head of Veterans Affairs, or the ambassador to a foreign country, to name just a few positions. Of course, the president ultimately made his selection. But he made it from my approved list. If candidates did not get by me, they did not get to him. This situation was actually not some unique power given to me. It was the way things were done in Ike’s administration, the way they had been done in previous administrations, and, frankly, the way they continue to be done today!
Another presidentially granted power I was given, as were all others on the senior White House staff, was crafting answers to letters in the bulging presidential mail bag. In Ike’s time, as is true today, communications addressed to the president on a certain topic were diverted to a designated staff member for response in the president’s name.
If, for example, someone wrote to President Eisenhower about an immigration matter (one of the subjects assigned to me) I would respond in the President’s name. If you have ever written to the White House, this will look familiar to you, since my response was much the same as it would be, today: “Thank you for your communication to the President about_______. The President has asked me to inform you that _______.” The President, of course, never saw the incoming communication, which was signed by me.
I composed and signed so many of these responses on Eisenhower’s behalf that it seemed only fair when one day I had to respond to a frustrated repeat writer who very understandably asked in his letter: “Dear Mr. President, who the hell is Robert Gray?”
In addition to answering the bulk of a president’s mail, staff members, especially senior members of a president’s staff, also make many weighty decisions that then are attributed to the president. Senior staff members today have assumed such importance that they even have their own jets marked similarly to Air Force One.
Many staff members ride along on Air Force One when the president thinks he may need that person’s expertise, or if he simply wants to give someone the special privilege of such prestigious recognition. Even when staff members are not needed onboard Air Force One itself, they frequently fly to the President’s destination on one of four Boeing C-32A presidential staff planes. This is ostensibly in case the president needs their advice or input, but often it is really because this affords them a chance to network, raise funds, or campaign for various constituents and their re-election efforts, in the president’s name.
There has been a steady increase in power on the part of the presidential sidekicks, not the last of which is their acceptance of gifts. Sherman Adams, Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff, was forced to resign when it was disclosed that he had accepted the loan of a rug and the gift of a coat from a friend—even though that friend had been the best man at Adams’ wedding. Since those years, the rules have relaxed significantly. For example, both Pepsi and the Coca Cola Company “comp” the presidential staff with all the sodas they can consume.
The Mars Company provides tons of its M&Ms, all bearing the presidential seal, for staff members to give to family, friends and White House visitors. Once that bar got lowered, makers of potato chips and energy bars—and just about everyone with a product to sell—have stepped forward to try to gain the prestige of advertising the use of their products in the White House.
Once you start relaxing the rules, it is hard to know where the gifting ends or how high it goes. President Lyndon Johnson did not like Coca Cola. He preferred Fresca. So for him the company not only supplied unlimited amounts of the soda but also installed a Fresca tap in the mansion.
There is always the worry that senior staff members will become so impressed with their duties that they conclude ordinary rules do not apply to them.
No wonder the duties of today’s presidency can be dispatched with so little of the President’s own personal, hands-on time. With nearly 500 “assistant presidents” running a large part of the government, the President has plenty of free time to attend political rallies, spend weeks at Martha’s Vineyard, enjoy an eleven-day vacation in Hawaii, take his family and relatives on a jaunt to Rio, make a trip out West for fly-fishing in Yellowstone, spend four days in Chicago to play basketball, help out in several colleague’s campaigns, visit a pub named in his honor in Ireland, fly all the way to Ohio to swear in local police officers, fly down to Florida so his family can watch the Space Shuttle launch, work in some golf, run up to Camp David, or just be totally out of the public eye, as President Obama was for 21 days last year!
“The spending binges by Obama during what is being called ‘The Great Recession,’ with as many as 20 percent of Americans actually out of work, wages stagnant, the price of gas increasing, the cost of food increasing, Obama makes no sacrifices and plunders the American treasury as he and Michelle live like kings and queens at the expense of the middle class and the poor American taxpayer.”
—The Knoxville Journal, February 3, 2012
Chapter Three
When a Man’s Home Is His Castle, Literally
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Over the years, first families have added to, subtracted from, built on and even had parts of the White House demolished, without requesting permission to do so from either the American people or their representatives in Congress. They can do this, in what is only their temporary domicile, because we the people have, knowingly or not, given presidents the unfettered power to change 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in any way they wish—and to acquire or sell off presidential “possessions.”
President Teddy Roosevelt had a large family. He decided they needed more space, so he ordered the leveling of the greenhouses, which had dated back to the 1850s, to make room for the construction of the entire West Wing. It was planned to house some of his family, his small staff, the Secret Service and the presidential bowling alleys.
When you have extra space, you grow into it. FDR had six on his staff. By Eisenhower’s Administration, the presidential staff had grown to 32 in the West Wing. President Reagan’s staff had its offices in the West Wing and also in the executive office Building, which as I explained earlier, had in previous administrations housed all of the offices of the entire United States government. Growth of the White House compound has continued with every new administration. The staff that fills the West Wing, the executive office building and a large number of new buildings across Pennsylvania Avenue now numbers 469 men and women—professionals only—not including many hundreds more on the secretarial and support staff.
The assistants to the president have their own impressive toys. The Presidential Staff Planes consist of four Boeing C-32A jets that would seat 189 when used in commercial service. Each has been refitted to provide spacious accommodations to a total of only 45 presidential staff members.
The growth in numbers of the presidential top staff has actually been small compared to the growth in value of many of the presidential perks, especially his transportation. Eisenhower’s airplane, the Columbine, cost a little more than three million dollars. Today’s Air Force One and its twin for backup purposes—which is known as “the Wannabe”—cost the taxpayers $640,000,000. That’s nearly two thirds of a billion dollars. With 26 crew members and, again, five full-time chefs, Air Force One and the “Wannabe” are the most luxurious airplanes in the world.
Marine One, the presidential helicopter, is actually not one helicopter, but a fleet of 35, all housed in a hanger that the Marine Corps calls “the Cage.” on order are 28 more helicopters, to be known as helicopter Squadron HmX-ONE, the Presidential Fleet, at a cost of $11 billion.
Another major perk is Camp David. Before 1942, Camp David was known as hi-Catoctin, and was a camping area for the benefit of all federal employees and their families. Without any authorizing legislation or request for public approval, President Franklin Roosevelt summarily took over the property for the exclusive use of one federal employee—the president.
The White House swimming pool is another luxury with an interesting history. The dimes of American school kids contributed to the costs of construction of the original pool through annual drives by the March of Dimes, which is now focused on birth defects but originally raised money for polio research and related projects. President Roosevelt desperately needed its waters to exercise his polio-stricken limbs. The pool was built indoors in the wide building FDR erected to connect the new West Wing to the White House.
In later years, Eisenhower’s White House guest, Winston Churchill, swam in it, and Jack Kennedy famously held skinny-dipping parties there. Lyndon Johnson also swam nude in the pool, and when staff members refused to swim in the buff, he referred to them as “the Harvards,” which to Lyndon Johnson was the ultimate pejorative. When Richard Nixon served as president, he became obsessed with the thought that the press was out to destroy his presidency. In an attempt to ingratiate himself with the press corps, he decided to have the indoor swimming pool floored over and turned the entire area into a fancy lounge for members of the White House media.
Any subsequent president could have reversed President Nixon’s decision, but that never happened. At one point, Gerald Ford did consider returning the pool to its original use, and was assured workmen could easily remove the floor and the tiled pool would be ready for filling. But Ford was also advised that if he did this, he would incur the enmity of the fourth estate. Neither he nor any subsequent president wanted to suffer that consequence. Instead, Ford ordered the White House to build a second pool—an outdoor, fully heated one, just outside the oval office, taking up what had been a large portion of the White House’s famed Rose Garden.
We have given presidents total freedom to make any necessary changes in terms of décor, customs, structure and tradition. President Truman, in fact, undertook the most gigantic White House overhaul ever ordered by any president in 1942, after he was advised that several parts of the White House needed shoring up, he ordered the entire interior gutted. It would have been an easier and far less expensive construction job to tear the whole building down and begin again. Instead, the outside walls were allowed to remain to shield the awesome extent of the destruction from the prying eyes of the public—even though they were footing the bill.
When Harry and Bess Truman occupied the White House, they spent most of their evenings in what is called the Yellow oval Room. As the White House interior was being rebuilt, President Truman ordered that a balcony be constructed off his and Bess’s favorite room. When architects and purists said the balcony would spoil the symmetry and appearance of the White House, Truman responded: “To tell the truth, I don’t give a damn.” The deed was done, with no public vote. This balcony will always be known as the Truman Balcony.
National Park Service photo of the gutted interior of a large portion of the White House
(Photo with permission from Abbie Rowe, Courtesy of Harry S. Truman Library)
The Iconic Presidential Yacht Is Sold
Before President Hoover made the Sequoia the presidential yacht, it had been used by the Department of Commerce as a decoy to catch Prohibition lawbreakers. Herbert Hoover used it for his favorite sport, fishing. Over a span of forty-four years, the yacht became almost as much a part of presidential history as the White House.
U.S.S. Sequoia. as the yacht passed Mt. Vernon, the flag was dipped to symbolically salute George Washington.
(Printed with permission © Ann Stevens, All Rights Reserved)
During World War II, Roosevelt secretly met on the Sequoia with Eisenhower, who was then the Supreme Allied Commander, to discuss D-Day invasion plans. Later Harry Truman had an upright piano put aboard and entertained political friends with his piano playing during poker games. It was aboard the Sequoia that Richard Nixon broke the news to his family that he had decided to resign. Lyndon Johnson enjoyed sitting on the upper deck to watch movies projected onto the Sequoia’s white smokestack. And John F. Kennedy celebrated his last birthday aboard her.
In addition to all the family time presidents and first families spent aboard her, the Sequoia was invaluable as a tool for presidential negotiating. Aboard the Sequoia, official handshakes with foreign heads of state changed history. For use with recalcitrant members of Congress, the yacht had no equal. A president would board those Congressmen or Senators who had not committed to a certain piece of legislation and ply them with camaraderie and a few libations. Then the Sequoia’s captain would set a course down the Potomac to George Washington’s Mt. Vernon, where the yacht would drop anchor for a ceremonial salute, and the ship’s trumpeter would play taps. By the time the Sequoia was back at its pier, the president’s arm was around the shoulders of his former legislative adversaries, and deals had been struck.
So FDR took over what is now Camp David for exclusive presidential use, and President Truman gutted the White House and ordered construction of a balcony and a movie theater. President Nixon removed FDR’s swimming pool, and President Ford ordered a new pool built. President George Bush Sr. Had a jogging track installed, which President Bill Clinton later ordered torn up. Former U.S. Naval officer, President Jimmy C
arter, summarily sold the presidential yacht without the approval of anyone―a perfect example of the totality of power our presidents have to add to or subtract from what is actually the people’s property.
The White House Royal Grounds
The White House lawn itself, in addition to being meticulously manicured, provides fertile ground for getting across the first family’s political and social messages. During World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt had a “victory garden “planted on the White House grounds to set an example for citizens to grow their own produce in food-short America. In the decades since, the land has “lain fallow,” as they say in farm country when land is left unplanted to give it a chance to rejuvenate.
First Lady Michelle Obama had a five-acre piece of the White House grounds turned over for a vegetable garden. She has reported that 740 pounds of food has been grown on this plot of land “at a cost of about $180.” This project has great spirit and is a great model for America. And certainly the price seems like a bargain.
First Lady Michelle Obama and local elementary school students in White House vegetable garden, Oct. 2009.
(Photo with permission Tim Sloan, AFP / Getty Images)
But it should be noted that initially a crew from the United States Park Service had to remove 20 inches of topsoil from those five acres and replace it with “more virgin” dirt. Then they provided the seeds, the rototiller, the fertilizers and the heavy manpower. Taxpayers provided all that, and taxpayers will pay for the 24-hour security to keep this garden, unlike the one in your backyard, safe from rabbits, deer, or a neighbor’s poaching. Of course the taxpayers also pay for the cultivating, weeding, fertilizing and harvesting of the garden, and pay the salary of the newly created position of White House “Farm Site Coordinator,” as well as one of the four assistant White House chefs, whose civil service title designates him “White House Garden overseer.” Suddenly that crop becomes a little pricier than the symbol of prudent thriftiness it seemed to be.