Former President Donald Trump sent the White House ushers home early on his last day in office in a final “petty” act that left President Joe Biden locked out after his inauguration, a report claims.
As the National Journal reported, the outgoing president and first lady sent the ushers home for the day on Wednesday morning, which left Biden and his wife to “fend for themselves upon entering” their new residence. The outlet, citing a “well-placed official” who is not part of the new administration, said the move was intentional.
“The Trumps sent the butlers home when they left so there would be no one to help the Bidens when they arrived,” the source claimed.
“So petty.”
The report added that while reporting indicated that Biden fired chief usher Timothy Harleth, it was actually Trump who sacked the former executive of Trump Hotels who had been hired to his White House post by Melania Trump.
The outlet noted that video footage showed an awkward moment for Biden after he first arrived at his new residence and had to stand outside the large entrance doors before they finally swung open roughly 15 seconds later. It is the job of the ushers to open and close doors inside the building and another official said it was considered a faux pas that no one was there to do it for Biden.
Others saw it as an error in communication in the changeover between administrations.
“It doesn’t strike me as strange at all that the doors were closed as it made for a nicer photo for the Bidens, which I bet the advance team requested,” another former White House official added.
“But what should have happened is that a Biden staff member should have alerted the usher or staff person on the other side of that door that it was time to open it. That was a staff mistake.”
Biden showed no signs of animosity in his transition, despite a bitter campaign filled with personal attacks from the president followed by weeks of unfounded claims that the election win had been stolen from him. Though Trump broke from a number of traditions including skipping out on Biden’s inauguration ceremony, the new president said that Trump did leave a “very generous letter” in the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, CNN reported. Biden said he would not go into details about what was written in the letter, saying it was private and he would not divulge the contents until after he had spoken with Trump personally.
