- President Biden said he was “extremely self-conscious” about waiting in the White House.
- In a CNN town hall, he said he was “educated in a way that you did not want to wait for someone to wait for you.”
- In the first week of his presidency, Trump boasted about the opulence of the White House.
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President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he feels uncomfortable with how many staff are being welcomed by the White House. President Donald Trump boasted of his wealth at a similar point in his presidency.
In a CNN town hall – Biden’s first town hall as president – Biden described how he got used to living and working in the White House.
When CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asked what it was like to be at the White House as the vice president as opposed to the vice president, Biden joked that he ‘gets up in the morning and looks at Jill and says,’ Where the hell is this? we? ‘
He said he had never spent time in the residence in the Oval Office.
He also touched on the service he received as president in the White House. “I was raised in a way that you did not look for someone to wait for you,” he said.
“I find myself extremely self-conscious,” he added, because there are so many staff members in the White House waiting for him, including someone handing me my jacket. ‘
Biden speaks on Feb. 5 in the state-run White House dining room.
Stefani Reynolds-Pool / Getty Images
Biden’s description contrasts with how Trump described living and working in the White House on the fifth night of his presidency.
In a telephone interview with Maggie Haberman, The New York Times, in January 2017, Trump boasted many of his features.
He told Haberman that “these are the most beautiful phones I have ever used in my life.”
He added that everyone who came into the Oval Office was impressed. “I have people coming in, they are stepping in here and they just want to stare for a long time,” he said.
Trump famously used an old call button in the Oval Office to order Diet Cokes from his staff. It is not clear what Biden is currently using for the button.
In his Times interview, Trump praised the residence in the White House, calling it ‘beautiful’ and ‘very elegant’.
Speaking about the master bedroom, Trump said: ‘There is something very special about knowing that Abraham Lincoln slept there. The Lincoln bedroom was your office, and the suite where I’m staying is actually where he slept. ‘
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in March.
Doug Mills-Pool / Getty Images
“Because he knows it all, it’s different than just pure elegance and room size,” Trump added. “There’s a lot of history.”
In CNN City Hall, Biden said the White House is very different from the number one observatory, the vice president’s residence, and he describes the relative freedom he had there. “You can ride a bike and never leave the property and practice,” he said.
He described the White House more restrictively, calling it a ‘gilded cage, in terms of being able to walk outside and do things.’
Biden said it had been president for more than four months.
“And sometimes, because things move so fast – not because of burden – it feels like four years,” he said. “It’s not because of the burden, it’s because so much is happening that you are constantly focusing on one problem or opportunity.”