A toilet seat for Trump and a coin case for Spicer: The thrill of White House work orders

There was a colony of ants in John Kelly's office.
 By 
Chloe Bryan
 on 
A toilet seat for Trump and a coin case for Spicer: The thrill of White House work orders
Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Mice! Cockroaches! A display case for coins! If politicians asking for new toilet seats interests you, look no further than this year's White House maintenance requests, brought to you by the Freedom of Information Act.

In 2017, officials sent in hundreds of service requests for modifications, repairs, and pest problems in the White House. (Remember, the White House is extremely old.) The vast majority of these are pretty run-of-the-mill -- Mike Pence wanted a TV in his office, for example, presumably to watch old episodes of The 700 Club on silent -- but they're still a little fun to peruse.

Take, for example, the ant infestation in John Kelly's office (now taken care of!), or the four separate reports of cockroach infestations on the White House grounds. There's also the new toilet seat someone asked to be installed in the Oval Office "after hours," and my personal favorite: Sean Spicer's request for a "coin display case for his challenge coins." He also asked for a "skinny banquet table." Same!

Anyway, you can take a look at the full list here, thanks to NBC News4 in Washington. What do y'all think the deal was with the "mounted wall map" that had to be removed from the West Wing? Please send me your theories.

Topics Politics

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Chloe Bryan

Chloe was the shopping editor at Mashable. She was also previously a culture reporter. You can follow her on Twitter at @chloebryan.

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