Stacks of empty boxes were delivered to the White House grounds on Wednesday while the clock was still ticking for the Trump administration.
The pallets of cardboard boxes were delivered to the Eisenhower office building, as the administration of Biden will take office in a week on 20 January. Most offices in the building are for White House staff members.
The government of Biden plans to deep clean the White House itself.
Government contracts and orders reviewed by NBC News show that the cost of the additional cleanup is nearly half a million dollars. The top-down cleaning, which CNN reported for the first time, is above and beyond what usually happens during the well-choreographed conversion of the residence done by the White House custodians, donors and housekeepers, and it follows several outbreaks of the coronavirus on the White House site.
The State Department announced Wednesday that Biden will remain in Blair House the night before the inauguration, which President Donald Trump has said he will not attend.
“As usual, the White House offered the use of the Blair House on January 19, and it was accepted,” a State Department spokesman said.
Trump is expected to move to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after leaving office.
