Politically ambitious pups and kittens: Put your resumes aside. The job of first pet - an enviable White House gig with luxurious live-in privileges, after-hours access to the president and guaranteed positive press coverage - is not currently available.
That’s because President Donald Trump is not looking for a fluffy sidekick at the moment. Asked about plans for a four-legged addition to the White House, Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for Melania Trump, said in a statement: “The first family is still getting settled so there are no plans at this time.”
If Trump stays pet-free, he will be breaking with a long held tradition of presidential pet ownership.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s had his beloved terrier Fala. President George H.W. Bush’s English springer spaniel Millie was featured on “The Simpsons.” When President Barack Obama’s family acquired their Portuguese water dog Bo, it was big news.
“In the modern-day presidency, almost all of them have had a pet,” said Jennifer Pickens, a White House social expert who wrote “Pets at the White House.” Still, she noted, “all didn’t necessarily have them at the beginning of the administration.”
Power and pets have long gone hand in hand.
“For some reason people in power, they end up suffocating different opinions and dominating their staff, but they in some ways long for someone who will speak up to them, and a pet will,” said Doug Wead, a former George H.W. Bush administration staffer who wrote books on presidential children and the 2016 campaign.
Wead noted that political pets can sometimes be used for, well, politics. He recalled an event after Millie had puppies that was “carefully choreographed so guests could see all these little puppies.”
“It was calculated like a state dinner,” he said.
While there have been notable pets in the White House for generations, Millie was the first modern White House dog, said Pickens. She added that Barbara Bush was the first one to “use the pet as a tool to reach out.”
The former first lady wrote “Millie’s Book: As Dictated to Barbara Bush,” which reached the number one spot on the New York Times nonfiction best seller list in the fall of 1990. The newspaper’s description: “The memoirs of the English springer spaniel who lives in the White House.”
Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1998 followed Bush’s lead, with a children’s book about family dog Buddy and cat Socks. “Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids’ Letters to the First Pets” featured photographs of the pets, details on their habits and more than 50 letters from children to the pets.
AP
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