Donald Trump's butler for almost 30 years shares his demanding boss' surprising habits
Donald Trump’s butler has seen it all.
From the times that Ivanka Trump, the owner’s daughter, ordered the
gardeners off the grounds so that she could swim in the pool naked, to the day the historic library was turned into a bar.
From the happy day Mr Trump married Melania Knauss at the Florida estate, with Hillary Clinton watching on, to the sad moment when he was ordered to move out of his apartment in the 118-room Mar-a-Lago property by Marla Maples, Mr Trump’s then wife.
Anthony Senecal, 74, has worked at the estate for almost 60 years — almost half of the time for Mr Trump.
“You can always tell when the king is here,” said Mr Senecal, pointing out the rows of secret service cars parked outside.
The house was built by Marjorie Merriweather Post, a cereal heiress, in the 1920s. When she died in 1973, she left the house to the United States government with the idea that it would become a presidential retreat.
But the upkeep proved too expensive, and ownership was transferred back to Mrs Post’s daughters, who sold it to Mr Trump for less than $10 million (£7.07m) in 1985. He turned it into a private club a decade later.
Mr Senecal has told The New York Times about his long-time boss who, on being told in 2009 that Mr Senecal wanted to retire, told him: “Tony, to retire is to expire. I’ll see you next season.”
What the butler saw:
He does his own hair
GIF via Hunter Walker.
Mr Trump’s hair has, for decades, been a source of fascination to the American public.
And Mr Senecal revealed that, despite the estate having a salon, the billionaire preferred to style his own hair.
He only needs four hours of sleep a night
Trump listens to a question from a reporter at a campaign fundraiser at the home of car dealer Ernie Boch Jr. in Norwood, Massachusetts, August 28, 2015.
Like Margaret Thatcher, General David Petraeus, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Pepsi's Indra Nooyi, Mr Trump sleeps only for four hours a night, his butler said.
Then he rises before dawn to read the newspapers before playing golf.
The White House has had a light-sleeping incumbent before. George W Bush was famously in bed by 10pm, but Bill Clinton frequently survived on four or five hours sleep.
Read more at Businessinsider
No comments