As with many other federal agencies, Donald Trump has corrupted the National Park Service by appointing loyalists as acting directors. In fact, the Service has not had a Senate-approved director in Trump’s time in office. His four acting directors have enabled atrocities great and small, from environmental rule easements to using Park facilities like Mount Rushmore for political rallies.
The incoming director, who I assume will be nominated and confirmed in the usual, legal manner, will have a lot of messes to clean up. But there’s one minor task, a literal “housekeeping” function, I’d like to see the director get right on.
The steward, housekeeper, or such other employee of the Executive Residence at the White House as the President may designate, shall under the direction of the President, have the charge and custody of and be responsible for the plate, furniture, and public property therein. A complete inventory, in proper books, shall be made annually in the month of June, under the direction of the Director of the National Park Service, of all the public property in and belonging to the Executive Residence at the White House, showing when purchased, its cost, condition, and final disposition. This inventory shall be submitted to the President for his approval, and shall then be kept for reference in the office of the Director of the National Park Service, which shall furnish a copy thereof to the steward, housekeeper, or other employee responsible for the property.
www.law.cornell.edu/…
The person currently in charge of the Executive Residence is Chief White House Usher Timothy Harleth, who was installed in his position by the president in May of 2017, having been moved up the Avenue from Trump’s hotel in the Old Post Office Building.
Chief Usher is not a position with high turnover. In fact, Mr. Harleth is the first Cheif Usher to serve a single president since the mid-1930s, when Raymond Muir served under Franklin Roosevelt.
Mr. Harleth and staff have been quite busy of late, packing up the White House under the direction of First Lady Melania Trump, efforts apparently kept quiet to keep from angering her husband.
The first lady is now more than halfway done with the job of shipping belongings either to Mar-a-Lago or to storage, having bit-by-bit overseen the moveout for weeks. The residence staff has had to help with the semi-clandestine operation, facilitating packing logistics without raising the ire of the President, who truly believed he would be staying put.
While it is a relief to know that someone in the household has accepted the reality that the Biden family and administration will be expecting to occupy the premises next week (after a thorough sanitizing), I am concerned that, in their haste to decamp to friendlier environs, the Trumps might inadvertently pack up an item or two to ship to Palm Beach that actually belongs to the common weal.
Oh, goodness no, not on purpose. No one is suggesting that anyone in the Trump family would simply scoop up government property to use as they wish without proper authorization.
I simply believe that, once the Park Service is under a real, Senate-confirmed director and the Executive Residence has a Chief Usher chosen for a reverence for the building and its history rather than loyalty to its temporary occupant, that a thorough inventory be done of the East Wing and compared to the inventories submitted before Mr. Trump’s four acting directors.
Always best to make sure the books are in order, don’t you agree?