A NEW YEAR’S LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT PART 1

YOU, DONALD J. TRUMP, ARE MERELY A TEMPORARY RESIDENT of The White House—which belongs to the American people; not to you, not to your cowered MAGA sycophants. And, like any temporary resident, you have obligations pertaining to that occupancy. 

To wit: Get your GodDamned mitts off OUR house. 

Here, in Parts 1 and 2, this New Year’s Day and tomorrow, are tidbits related to this demand.

Narcissistic Lack of Taste. It’s bad enough that you force your narcissistic tastelessness on the people in gilding everything in sight. Haven’t we made it abundantly clear about No Kings?

A room in the three-story Trump Manhattan penthouse atop Trump Tower. Image from www.idesignmarch.com.

What you do to your Manhattan penthouse is your own business. It is, after all, in a building named Trump Tower.

Trump Tower Heritage. On the other hand, we’re not forgetting that you screwed the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as a Polish contingent of workers in that location’s transition from Bonwit Teller to Trump Tower. 

Nor do we overlook your continuing pomposity in claiming the penthouse is on the 68th floor—when Trump Tower has only 58 stories. 

Only one of many tales of the Short-Fingered Vulgarian. (Thank Graydon Carter who recognized this flaw in Spy magazine, April 1988, “Our NICE Issue.”)

A meeting in the White House Oval Office. Image from Pool via AP. 

Technicalities Galore. Tenants are permitted to make changes: Indeed, a Google A.I. Overview describes, “Yes, major White House changes require approval from bodies like the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) and Commission of Fine Arts (CFA), plus potential congressional approval for significant projects, as it’s federal property, though President Trump’s administration claimed a technicality allowed bypassing reviews for a ballroom project by citing private funding and focusing only on ‘vertical construction’ approval.”

“While presidents can pick decor,” A.I. Overview cites, “large-scale demolition or rebuilding, like Truman’s reconstruction, needs official review and funding authorization, with critics arguing recent actions bypass established federal preservation laws.”

Image from The New York Times.

Succinctly, alas, gilding is in the eye of the beholder.

Tomorrow in Part 2, I focus on a particularly egregious abuse of Trump’s tenent/owner relationship. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026