Trump’s White House Literally A ‘Dump,’ Cockroaches, Mice Running Around President's Residence

A number of maintenance orders regarding the White House put through U.S. General Services Administration this year revealed that it was infested with pests like mice and cockroaches.

Hundreds of work orders obtained by NBC 4 Washington revealed that there have been several requests made to deal with the vermin problem plaguing different rooms of the historic building, which currently houses President Donald Trump. According to the work orders, mice infiltrated the Situation Room as well as the White House Navy mess food service area. In addition, ants were found at the chief of staff’s office and cockroaches spotted crawling in four different parts of the White House.

Apparently, mouse traps were laid down outside Vice President Mike Pence’s office on the ground floor of the West Wing. However, a different kind of an issue emerged when the traps successfully managed to catch them. “Landscape shop to check all the traps in the West Wing... because they’re smelling something funky or dead mouse,” read one of the work order requests at a later date.

Former General Services Administration (GSA) Inspector General Brian Miller told NBC that maintaining the old presidential building is a herculean task. “It’s an enormous job. GSA is assigned to manage that job,” Miller told NBC. “GSA hires contractors and subcontractors for the [maintenance] work. Then the agency must watch over the contractors. They are old buildings. Any of us who have old houses know old houses need a lot of work.”

Vermin and pests were not the only problem that the White House had to deal with. There was also the matter of rotting decorations and plumbing issues in the building. One of the requests asked for a new toilet to be installed in the washroom of the Oval Office. As it happens, every tiny change in the White House had to be requested first by filing a work order. Another order specifically requested for the temperature of the Oval Office to be increased a couple of notches because it was “too cold.”

According to New York Daily News, a designer was tasked with setting up fresh new drapes in first lady Melania Trump’s office with the following instructions: “I would like the drapery to break the floor — touching but not puddling.”

Some other work orders included hanging up televisions, replacing light bulbs, and fixing leaky faucets in the White House.

When Golf Magazine reported in August that Trump had called the White House “a real dump” it caused uproar among social media users. Although the White House later branded the statement nothing but “fake news,” the work orders confirmed the fact that the president might have meant his remark literally.

According to Newsweek, the White House was not renovated since 1950s. In 1945, former President Harry S. Truman joked that the building remained the "crown jewel of the federal prison system."