Cooks and dirty looks! In a new Vanity Fair piece, former permanent White House staffers — which include butlers, maids, cooks, plumbers, engineers and florists — shared their concerns about what would happen if Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton were to win the 2016 election.
The White House’s former top pastry chef Roland Mesnier, former head housekeeper Christine Limerick and other former employees seem especially worried about a Trump administration, and the family potentially living in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Here, Us Weekly breaks down what certain former staffers had to say.
Christine Limerick, Former Head Housekeeper
“I think a Trump election and transition would be a disaster,” Limerick, who was the head of housekeeping from 1979 to 2008, told Vanity Fair. “I think that Donald Trump and his family would think that the mansion is too small, too old, and not glamorous enough for them. He might say, ‘Who cares about the history of the place or the fact that it has been the home of every president except George Washington? You don’t want to make the changes I want? You’re fired!'”
Roland Mesnier, Former Top Pastry Chef
Mesnier served as the White House’s top pastry chef from the start of the Jimmy Carter administration in January 1977 through President George W. Bush‘s second term, which ended in January 2009. If Mesnier were serving the Trumps in the White House, the pastry guru said he would be “nervous.”
“If the Donald makes it to the White House I think there’s going to be a lot of changes. I think the White House as we know it and the kitchen will be totally different,” Mesnier told the mag. While Trump prefers common American food (steaks and fast-food hamburgers, as opposed to haute cuisine dishes), Mesnier said the real estate mogul has historically had access to the world’s best chefs.
“I would be worried for my job, that maybe my job as I know it will disappear,” Mesnier said. “If the pastry chef quits, with one phone call he will have five chefs from his restaurants ready to replace him.”
Skip Allen, Former White House Usher
Former White House usher Allen served the White House for 25 years before retiring in 2004, but there’s one couple he would not want to serve again: the Clintons. “The Clintons can’t make up their minds about what they really want,” Allen claimed to Vanity Fair. “You never knew what they were going to ask for or when they were going to ask for it.”
Allen recalled an alleged incident when former First Lady (and current Democratic frontrunner) Hillary dialed him and asked him to stop serving a chicken dish. He claims she called again a month later to request that they put it back on the menu. “‘We are really missing that chicken dish. Why isn’t it on the menu anymore?'” Hillary supposedly said at the time.
The former usher further claimed that the couple, who lived in the White House from January 1993 to January 2001, were very paranoid and even had the phone system swapped. At the time, an operator connected calls, but the Clintons preferred to directly dial people themselves. “They weren’t comfortable with the staff,” Allen told VF. “And I don’t think a second chance at the White House would make them any less insecure.”
Worthington White, Former White House Usher
But this usher really loved the Clintons! White said many of the staffers loved Bill and Hillary and their daughter, Chelsea Clinton. “There are people there who are tremendous Clinton fans,” White, who served the White House from 1980 to 2012, told Vanity Fair. He also noted to the mag how protective staffers were over Chelsea as she was raised in the White House and endured her father’s very public cheating scandal.
Anonymous Former Staffer
“As far as I’m concerned,” a former staffer told Vanity Fair on the condition of anonymity, “if asked, I would not go back to the White House for Trump, even if they tripled my old pay.”
