essay about white house

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White House

By: History.com Editors

Updated: June 27, 2023 | Original: March 11, 2015

The official home for the U.S. president was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the 1790s. Rebuilt after a British attack in 1814, the “President’s House” evolved with the personal touches of its residents, and accommodated such technological changes as the installation of electricity. The building underwent major structural changes in the early 1900s under Teddy Roosevelt, who also officially established the “White House” moniker, and again under Harry Truman after WWII. Counting the Oval Office and the Rose Garden among its famous features, it remains the only private residence of a head of state open free of charge to the public.

When Was the White House Built?

Not long after the inauguration of President George Washington in 1789, plans to build an official President’s House in a federal district along the Potomac River took shape. A contest to find a builder produced a winning design from Irish-born architect James Hoban, who modeled his building after an Anglo-Irish villa in Dublin called the Leinster House.

The cornerstone was laid on October 13, 1792, and over the next eight years a construction team comprised of both enslaved and freed African Americans and European immigrants built the Aquia Creek sandstone structure. It was coated with lime-based whitewash in 1798, producing a color that gave rise to its famous nickname. Built at a cost of $232,372, the two-story house was not quite completed when John Adams and Abigail Adams became the first residents on November 1, 1800.

White House Renovations and Improvements 

Thomas Jefferson added his own personal touches upon moving in a few months later, installing two water closets and working with architect Benjamin Latrobe to add bookending terrace-pavilions. Having transformed the building into a more suitable representation of a leader’s home, Jefferson held the first inaugural open house in 1805, and also opened its doors for public tours and receptions on New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July.

Burned to the ground by the British in August 1814, the President’s House was nearly left in its smoldering remains as lawmakers contemplated moving the capital to another city. Instead, Hoban was brought back to rebuild it nearly from scratch, in some areas incorporating the original, charred walls. Upon reassuming residency in 1817, James Madison and his wife Dolley gave the home a more regal touch by decorating with extravagant French furniture.

The building’s South and North Porticoes were added in 1824 and 1829, respectively, while John Quincy Adams established the residence’s first flower garden. Subsequent administrations continued to overhaul and bolster the interior through Congressional appropriations; the Fillmores added a library in the second-floor oval room, while the Arthurs hired famed decorator Louis Tiffany to redecorate the east, blue, red and state dining rooms.

William Taft hired architect Nathan Wyeth to expand the executive wing in 1909, resulting in the formation of the Oval Office as the president’s work space. In 1913, the White House added another enduring feature with Ellen Wilson’s Rose Garden. A fire during the Hoover administration in 1929 destroyed the executive wing and led to more renovations, which continued after Franklin Roosevelt entered office.

Architect Eric Gugler more than doubled the space of what was becoming known as the “West Wing,” added a swimming pool in the west terrace for the polio-stricken president, and moved the Oval Office to the southeast corner. A new east wing was constructed in 1942, its cloakroom transformed into a movie theater.

A final major overhaul took place after Harry Truman entered office in 1945. With structural problems mounting from the 1902 installation of floor-bearing steel beams, most of the building’s interior was stripped bare as a new concrete foundation went in place. The Trumans helped redesign most of the state rooms and decorate the second and third floors, and the president proudly displayed the results during a televised tour of the completed house in 1952.

Over the course of 1969-70, a porte-cochere and circular drive were added to the exterior of the West Wing, with a new press briefing room installed inside. Following a 1978 study to assess the exterior paint, up to 40 layers were removed in some areas, allowing for repairs of deteriorated stone. Meanwhile, the Carter administration set about adjusting to a new information age by installing the White House’s first computer and laser printer. The internet made its debut in the mansion under the watch of George H.W. Bush in 1992.

The White House Today

The White House today holds 132 rooms on six floors , the floor space totaling approximately 55,000 square feet. It has hosted longstanding traditions such as the annual Easter Egg Roll , as well as historic events like the 1987 nuclear arms treaty with Russia. The only private residence of a head of state open free of charge to the public, the White House reflects a nation’s history through the accumulated collections of its residing presidents, and serves as a worldwide symbol of the American republic.

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The White House in the 19th century

• The White House since 1900

White House

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• Cornell University - A.D. White House History
• Official Site of the White House - About the White House
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• Table Of Contents

What is the White House?

The White House is the official office and residence of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. in Washington, D.C.

How much land does the White House and its grounds cover?

The White House and its landscaped grounds occupy 18 acres (7.2 hectares).

Does the president live in the White House?

The White House is both the home and workplace of the president of the United States, and it is the headquarters of the president’s principal staff members.

Who was the first president to live in the White House?

The second president of the United States, John Adams , moved into the still-unfinished presidential mansion on November 1, 1800.

How many rooms are there in the White House?

The White House building complex has more than 130 rooms.

What is the architectural style of the White House?

The White House is a Georgian mansion in the Palladian style.

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White House , the official office and residence of the president of the United States at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. in Washington, D.C. It is perhaps the most famous and easily recognizable house in the world, serving as both the home and workplace of the president and the headquarters of the president’s principal staff members.

The White House and its landscaped grounds occupy 18 acres (7.2 hectares). Since the administration of George Washington (1789–97), who occupied presidential residences in New York and Philadelphia , every American president has resided at the White House. Originally called the “President’s Palace” on early maps, the building was officially named the Executive Mansion in 1810 in order to avoid connotations of royalty. Although the name “White House” was commonly used from about the same time (because the mansion’s white-gray sandstone contrasted strikingly with the red brick of nearby buildings), it did not become the official name of the building until 1901, when it was adopted by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt (1901–09). The White House is the oldest federal building in the nation’s capital.

The building’s history begins in 1792, when a public competition was held to choose a design for a presidential residence in the new capital city of Washington. Thomas Jefferson , later the country’s third president (1801–09), using the pseudonymous initials “A.Z.,” was among those who submitted drawings, but Irish American architect James Hoban won the commission (and a $500 prize) with his plan for a Georgian mansion in the Palladian style. The structure was to have three floors and more than 100 rooms and would be built in sandstone imported from quarries along Aquia Creek in Virginia. The cornerstone was laid on October 13, 1792. Labourers, including local enslaved people, were housed in temporary huts built on the north side of the premises . They were joined by skilled stonemasons from Edinburgh, Scotland , in 1793.

In 1800 the entire federal government was relocated from Philadelphia to Washington. John Adams , the country’s second president (1797–1801), moved into the still unfinished presidential mansion on November 1 and the next night wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams :

I Pray Heaven Bestow the Best of Blessings on This House and All that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under this Roof.

At the insistence of Pres. Franklin Roosevelt (1933–45), the quotation was inscribed on the fireplace of the State Dining Room immediately below the portrait of Abraham Lincoln , by George Healy .

When Abigail Adams finally arrived in Washington several days later, she was disappointed with the inadequate state of the residence. The first lady wrote,

There is not a single apartment finished. We have not the least fence, yard, or other convenience outside. I use the great unfinished audience room [East Room] as a drying room for hanging up the clothes.

The mansion quickly became a focal point of the new federal city and was symbolically linked to the United States Capitol by way of Pennsylvania Avenue. Following his inauguration in March 1801, Jefferson became the second president to reside in the executive mansion. In keeping with his ardent republicanism, he opened the house to public visitation each morning, a tradition that was continued (during peacetime) by all his successors. He personally drew up landscaping plans and had two earthen mounds installed on the south lawn to remind him of his beloved Virginia Piedmont. Meanwhile, construction continued on the building’s interior, which still lacked ample staircases and suffered from a persistently leaky roof. During Jefferson’s tenure , the White House was elegantly furnished in Louis XVI style (known in America as Federal style ).

During the War of 1812 the building was burned by the British, and Pres. James Madison (1809–17) and his family were forced to flee the city. The Madisons eventually moved into the nearby Octagon House, the Washington mansion of John Tayloe, a Virginia plantation owner. Reconstruction and expansion began under Hoban’s direction, but the building was not ready for occupancy until 1817, during the administration of Pres. James Monroe (1817–25). Hoban’s reconstruction included the addition of east and west terraces on the main building’s flanks; a semicircular south portico and a colonnaded north portico were added in the 1820s.

During the 19th century the White House became a symbol of American democracy . In the minds of most Americans, the building was not a “palace” from which the president ruled but merely a temporary office and residence from which he served the people he governed. The White House belonged to the people, not the president, and the president occupied it only for as long as the people allowed him to stay. The idea of a president refusing to leave the White House after losing an election or an impeachment trial was unthinkable.

The inauguration of Andrew Jackson (1829–37), the “people’s president,” attracted thousands of well-wishers to the nation’s capital. As Jackson rode on horseback down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, he was surrounded by a frenetic throng of 20,000 people, many of whom attempted to follow him into the mansion to get a better look at their hero. A contemporary, Margaret Bayer Smith, recounts what happened next: “The halls were filled with a disorderly rabble…scrambling for the refreshments designed for the drawing room.” While friends of the new president joined arms to protect him from the mob, “china and glass to the amount of several thousand dollars were broken in the struggle to get at the ices and cakes, though punch and other drinkables had been carried out in tubs and buckets to the people.” Said Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story , “I was glad to escape from the scene as soon as possible.” During his administration Jackson spent more than $50,000 refurbishing the residence, including $10,000 on decorations for the East Room and more than $4,000 on a sterling silver dinner and dessert set decorated with an American eagle.

In 1842 the visit to the United States of the English novelist Charles Dickens brought an official invitation to the White House. After his calls at the White House door went unanswered, Dickens let himself in and walked through the mansion from room to room on the lower and upper floors. Finally coming upon a room filled with nearly two dozen people, he was shocked and appalled to see many of them spitting on the carpet. Dickens later wrote, “I take it for granted the Presidential housemaids have high wages .” Until the Civil War, however, most White House servants were enslaved people. Moreover, the wages of all White House employees—as well as the expenses for running the White House, including staging official functions—were paid for by the president. Not until 1909 did Congress provide appropriations to pay White House servants.

Dickens was not the only foreign visitor to be disappointed with the White House. On a trip to Washington just before the Civil War, Aleksandr Borisovich Lakier, a Russian nobleman, wrote that “the home of the president…is barely visible behind the trees.” The White House, he said, was “sufficient for a private family and not at all conforming to the expectations of a European.” Subsequent changes to the building in the 19th century were relatively minor. The interior was redecorated during various presidential administrations and modern conveniences were regularly added, including a refrigerator in 1845, gas lighting in 1849, and electric lighting in 1891.

The White House was the scene of mourning after the assassination of Pres. Abraham Lincoln (1861–65). While Mary Todd Lincoln lay in her room for five weeks grieving for her husband, many White House holdings were looted. Responding to charges that she had stolen government property when she left the White House, she angrily inventoried all the items she had taken with her, including gifts of quilts and waxworks from well-wishers.

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White House

Introduction.

The second and third floors contain private living space for the president, the president’s family, and the president’s guests. The family and guests can enjoy the White House’s movie theater, swimming pool, tennis court, jogging track, and library. In addition, the White House has its own doctor’s office, dentist’s office, and barber shop.

The first president of the United States—George Washington—did not live in the White House. It had not been built yet, and Washington, D.C., did not exist when he was elected. The capital at the time was New York City. During Washington’s first term the capital was moved to Philadelphia. In 1790 the U.S. Congress chose the area that is now Washington, D.C., to be the site of the new permanent U.S. capital. In 1792 an architect named James Hoban drew up plans for a house where the president could live. The house was not ready until 1800. John Adams was the first president to live there.

In 1902 workers built the West Wing to make office space. In 1942 workers built the East Wing to make even more space. From 1948 to 1952 much of the interior of the building was rebuilt. The outside walls were not changed. Over the years several presidents and their wives have redecorated the rooms of the White House. Today the public can tour parts of the main building.

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The White House Building Essay (Critical Writing)

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Line, Form, Color, and Texture

The White House is the formal home and workplace of the President of U.S. The building rests on the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, D.C. (Hess, 2004). Every presidential family has implemented some transformations to the White House, since Kennedy’s renovation.

The North front, which is the main facade of the White House, has eleven bays and three floors (Hess, 2004). The facade seems to have two floors because ground floor can not be seen. The roofline of the building can, as well, not be seen because of a blocking wall. The Southern facade of the building has three floors that can be seen. The facade has a bow with three projecting bays, at the center. The bow gets bordered by 5 bays. The most recent third floor gets concealed, by a barrier wall and has no function in the structure of the facade.

The design of the building is superbly symmetric on the wings. The well ventilated windows in every wing make the building appear lighter than when there were no windows. Devoid of these elements, the house would appear top heavy.

The building has a floor space of 5,100 M² (Yanuck, 2006). Besides, the East Wing contains extra office space. The Central air conditioning and two other subbasements became added, in order to offer space for storage, bomb shelter and workrooms. The recently renovated interior has an enormous deal of natural light ensuing from the unblocking of both ground floor and first floor windows.

The house uses repetition in several ways. Each Wing of the building has several windows, which get repeated. Bays and pediments, also, get repeated. Windows are in sets of three on the Southern Wing.

Because of rainy summers and cold, windy, winters, the house suitably has tiny, covered, porches and the doors sway inward to let quick entry on a snowy, cold or rainy day. Besides, the building has large blowers close to the ceiling, for heating and vast ceiling fans, which can be reversed in hot summers. Indicate how the Building either assists, or inhibits a Smooth Traffic Flow through its Space, or Spaces.

The building divides into several crosswise pathways, as well as, lengthwise pathways for passage by foot. Besides, the interior has a grand staircase that connects to the Entrance Hall. The adjacent passageways allow traffic ease around the peripheral of the building. The building has a main entrance, at the centre of the portico, which makes it easy to enter directly to the house. Besides, the house has 412 doors for easier accessibility of facilities in the building (Yanuck, 2006). Point Out, how the Building Stimulates the Senses.

The location of the house is pleasant because it is away from the central streets. The house rests on the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, D.C. (Hess, 2004). The outside is visually friendly as it looks rather like a house of worship (due to its white painting, which symbolizes purity). Thus, the building is pleasant to view. Also, the neoclassical style of the building catches the eye to view the beautiful pediments and wings. The stone feel comfortable under the feet and are easy to walk on, since they do not get slippery even in the rain. Since the White House is away from the traffic and different artists sing and play in the passageways, the sounds are extremely pleasant. Lastly, one breathes fresh air as he walks inside the building since it has central air conditioning.

The structure has several powerful lines. Some vertical lines of the building pounce directly into the sky even as, its horizontal lines that exist between doorways and windows are all stark although significant, generating a solid feel to the whole area. The vertical lines from the ground floor to the pediment make the building distinguishable from other intriguing structures, in the region. These vertical lines and the pediment dominate the appearance of the building.

Form follows function with principal workplace and official residence of the U.S president. The house gets firmly designed and remains true to its novel requirements as a president’s house. This house remains purposeful and yet appealing to the eyes and striking to the numerous visitors of the White House.

Natural colors are an element of the White House surroundings with shades of green, blue, brown, yellow and white. The white color in the building offers it a true, regional appearance. The yellow, red and green painted rooms match well with the surrounding of the building because they conjure up the colors of the region. Hence, these colors help to build the feeling of geographic position for this house and, also, add to the Holy feel of the building.

White House rests at Washington’s 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the texture of geography is that of smooth and well-shaped trees and flowers. Similarly, the building has a smooth geographic texture.

The white-painted, Aquia, sandstone furnishes the house. Hence, the physical texture of the building appears does not appear rough, even from a distance. While bricks are rough to touch, their physical texture fails to give the house much of a rough look. Nevertheless, bricks can lead to magnificent shadowing, and these bricks are no exception. The building has just enough texture, but from a distance, the house does not appear flat.

Hess, D. (2004). The White House . New York: Benchmark Books.

Yanuck, D. (2006). The White House . Mankato: Capstone Press.

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IvyPanda. (2020, June 3). The White House Building. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-white-house-building/

"The White House Building." IvyPanda , 3 June 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/the-white-house-building/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'The White House Building'. 3 June.

IvyPanda . 2020. "The White House Building." June 3, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-white-house-building/.

1. IvyPanda . "The White House Building." June 3, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-white-house-building/.

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• Donald Trump

My Uncle Donald Trump Told Me Disabled Americans Like My Son ‘Should Just Die’

W hen my uncle was elected President , I recognized what a highly privileged position I would be in. I would have some access to the White House. And as long as that was true, I wanted to make sure I used that access for something positive. I was eager to champion something my wife, Lisa, and I were deeply passionate about, something we lived every day: the challenges for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.

Our son William, our third child, was born on June 30, 1999. Within 24 hours, he went from seemingly healthy to fighting for his life in the NICU. Raising him was different from the start. William was diagnosed at three months with infantile spasms, a rare seizure disorder which in William's case altered his development physically and cognitively. We had so many questions: What would the future hold for someone like William? How far could he go? How much could he learn? Would he ever have the chance to do the things that other children do?

We just didn’t know. It took 15 years before his medical team could accurately pinpoint the cause of his condition: a KCNQ2 mutation, a genetic misfire that the doctors called a potassium channel deletion.

In our journey with William, Lisa and I had become close to some truly inspiring parents and dedicated advocates who were doing amazing work to improve the day-to-day reality for families like ours. It’s a huge lift for caregivers, not to mention the constant need to mitigate expenses . There are so many different demands and challenges. But there are things that the government can do—some things that can only be done by the government, both federal and state. We wanted to bring knowledgeable people to the White House, to see if we could make a difference. 

Lisa reached out to my cousin Ivanka, who was working in the White House as an advisor to the President. Ivanka got right back to her and said she’d be happy to help. She provided a contact for Ben Carson , the retired neurosurgeon who was secretary of housing and urban development. We brought several talented advocates with us for a meeting with Carson and members of his senior staff in April 2017. “Look,” I said as we got started, “I’m the least important person in the room.” I wanted the focus to be on the others, who knew a lot more than I did. They immediately started floating ideas, which was exactly why we were there. Our collective voice was being heard. It was a start.

In January 2020, just before COVID hit, Lisa, myself, and a team of advocates met with Chris Neeley, who headed the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, a much-needed federal advisory committee that promotes policies and initiatives that support independent and lifelong inclusion . We discussed the need for all medical schools to include courses that focus on people with intellectual and developmental disabilities . We emphasized how crucial it was for hospitals and other acute-care facilities to help patients transition from pediatric to adult services. We emphasized the importance of collecting sufficient data to explain medically complex disorders. This was not about more government spending. It was about smarter investing and greater efficiency.

We spent the next few months making calls and talking with officials and gathering our own recommendations, giving special attention to the critical need for housing support for people with disabilities. We were back in Washington in May.

By this time, COVID was raging. We were all masked up and COVID tested on the way into the White House Cabinet Room. Once we got inside, we sat down with Alex Azar , the administration’s secretary of health and human services, and Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health, both of whom served on the White House Coronavirus Task Force. The promising agency motto stated: HHS: Enhancing the Health and Well-Being of All Americans.

Sharp, direct, and to the point, Azar exhibited my kind of efficiency with no time to waste. His first question was, “OK, why are you here?”

I made a brief introduction. Our group included a leading doctor and several highly qualified advocates. What followed was a great discussion. Something clicked with Giroir—an idea for a program everyone could agree on that would cut through the bureaucracy and control costs and also yield better and more efficient medical outcomes.

Excellent. We were making progress.

“Really appreciate your coming in,” Azar finally said, more warmly than he had sounded at the start. “I know we’re going to see the President.”

The meeting I had assumed would be a quick handshake hello with Donald had turned into a 45-minute discussion in the Oval Office with all of us—Azar, Giroir, the advocates, and me. I never expected to be there so long. Donald seemed engaged, especially when several people in our group spoke about the heart-wrenching and expensive efforts they’d made to care for their profoundly disabled family members, who were constantly in and out of the hospital and living with complex arrays of challenges .

Donald was still Donald, of course. He bounced from subject to subject—disability to the stock market and back to disability. But promisingly, Donald seemed genuinely curious regarding the depth of medical needs across the U.S. and the individual challenges these families faced. He told the secretary and the assistant secretary to stay in touch with our group and to be supportive. 

After I left the office, I was standing with the others near the side entrance to the West Wing when Donald’s assistant caught up with me. “Your uncle would like to see you,” she said.

Azar was still in the Oval Office when I walked back in. “Hey, pal,” Donald said. “How’s everything going?”

“Good,” I said. “I appreciate your meeting with us.”

“Sure, happy to do it.”

He sounded interested and even concerned. I thought he had been touched by what the doctor and advocates in the meeting had just shared about their journey with their patients and their own family members. But I was wrong.

“Those people . . . ” Donald said, trailing off. “The shape they’re in, all the expenses, maybe those kinds of people should just die.” 

I truly did not know what to say. He was talking about expenses. We were talking about human lives. For Donald, I think it really was about the expenses, even though we were there to talk about efficiencies, smarter investments, and human dignity.

I turned and walked away.

When William was 9 years old, Lisa and I met with Donald and a medical fund was created for William's care by the Trump Family, a fund that was crucial to our ability to support him.

In the summer of 2018, William was in the hospital for almost three weeks with a serious case of life-threatening pneumonia. He was 19 and very sick. It was incredibly frightening for Lisa and me—and for his brother and sister too. It was always hard to know if moments like these could compromise his health to the point that we would lose him. These are the times that you reach for all the strength you have.

William came home with oxygen and a feeding tube. After more than two weeks on a ventilator, he needed to learn how to eat all over again. We were too often in these setback situations, but you move forward the best you can.

It’s times like these when family support is most needed and appreciated. At every opportunity, we let my aunts and uncles know how grateful we were for the medical fund for William’s care and recovery. We sent pictures and updates, as we had in the past. We got no personal responses, which was the norm. It was the dedicated support and genuine love of caregivers that helped us the most.

Uncle Robert died in 2020 , and the medical fund for William continued. It was enormously helpful with our home-care costs and medical expenses, and we were always grateful to my father’s siblings for contributing. But even before Robert’s death, their interest had seemed to begin waning. My cousin Eric, who was the administrator, called me to say the fund was running low. Donald was the only one contributing consistently. Eric said he’d been getting some resistance from Maryanne, Elizabeth, and Ann Marie, Robert’s widow. I really didn’t look forward to these calls.

“Why don’t you call Donald?” Eric said. “Talk to him about it.”

I thanked Eric for the heads-up and promised I would.

Soon thereafter, I was up at Briarcliff Manor, home of the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, N.Y. Donald happened to be there.

He was talking with a group of people. I didn’t want to interrupt. I just said hi on my way through the clubhouse. I called him later that afternoon, and he answered.

I got him up to speed on what Eric had told me. I said I’d heard the fund for William was running low, and unfortunately, the expenses certainly were not easing up as our son got older. In fact, with inflation and other pressures, the needs were greater than they’d been. “We’re getting some blowback from Maryanne and Elizabeth and Ann Marie. We may need your help with this. Eric wanted me to give you a call.”

Donald took a second as if he was thinking about the whole situation.

“I don’t know,” he finally said, letting out a sigh. “He doesn’t recognize you. Maybe you should just let him die and move down to Florida.”

Wait! What did he just say? That my son doesn’t recognize me? That I should just let him die?

Did he really just say that? That I should let my son die . . . so I could move down to Florida?

I’m usually pretty good at getting my head around things that other people say, even when I don’t agree with them. But this was a tough one. This was my son.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear Donald say that. It wasn’t far off from what he’d said that day in the Oval Office after our meeting with the advocates. Only that time, it was other people’s children who should die. This time, it was my son.

I didn’t want to argue with him. I knew there was no point in that, not at the same time I was calling for his help. I tried to keep my cool.

“No, Donald,” I said. “He does recognize me.”

Donald’s comment was appalling. It hurt to hear him say that. But it also explained why Lisa and I felt so strongly about advocating for our son and why we wanted to help other people understand what it was like to raise a child like William. A lot of people just don’t know.

People with these disabilities are perceived as less than in so many ways. That attitude is everywhere, even at the highest levels of policy and politics.

William deserves a life just like anyone else, and to that end, I knew I had to advocate for him in every way possible. I might never change Donald’s mind or change the mind of anyone who lacked love and compassion for those whose voices couldn’t be heard and whose lives were fully dependent on others. But I knew what I could do. I could offer my voice, my experience, and my strength to push forward for those who needed it.

The barriers are everywhere , even in communities that are generally supportive, like ours. There are still doorways that can’t accommodate wheelchairs. It is still hard to find meaningful day programs that foster independence with learning, socialization, and assistive technology. The whole narrative still needs to change.

I knew that acceptance and tolerance would only come with public education and awareness. Donald might never understand this, but at least he had been open to our advocating through the White House. That was something. If we couldn’t change his feelings about William, that was his loss. He would never feel the love and connection that William offered us daily.

(Editor’s note: TIME reached out to former President Trump for a response to the description of events in this piece and did not receive a reply.)

Copyright © 2024 by Frederick Crist Trump III. From the forthcoming book ALL IN THE FAMILY: The Trumps and How We Got This Way by Fred Trump, to be published by Gallery Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC. Printed by permission.

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The Life and Presidency of John F. Kennedy

The Official 2020 White House Christmas Ornament historical essay

• William Seale Author & Historian

This photograph by White House photographer Robert Knudsen shows President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy next to the Blue Room Christmas tree. This photograph was taken in 1961 before the extensive renovations initiated by the first lady.

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The White House Historical Association’s 2020 Official White House Christmas Ornament honors John Fitzgerald Kennedy , the thirty-fifth president of the United States. The youngest president since Theodore Roosevelt , Kennedy took office in January 1961, at age 43. Before his vibrant presidency was cut short by an assassin’s bullet on November 22, 1963, he had reinvigorated the American spirit. His legacy lives on in his youthful belief in America and his faith in America’s responsibilities to the world.

With this ornament we remember President Kennedy through his posthumous official White House portrait, made in 1970 by Aaron Shikler, the artist selected by the president’s widow, Jacqueline Kennedy . The portrait, symbolic of his unfinished presidency, hangs in the White House today. Shikler recalled that Mrs. Kennedy did not want the portrait to look the way other artists had portrayed him. “I painted him with his head bowed, not because I think of him as a martyr,” Shikler said, “but because I wanted to show him as a president who was a thinker. . . . All presidential portraits have eyes that look right at you. I wanted to do something with more meaning. I hoped to show a courage that made him humble.”

The reverse of the ornament features the dates of President Kennedy’s brief term, 1961–1963, on either side of an engraving of the White House. The White House as it is today is another Kennedy legacy. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy restored the furnishings and decor of the State Rooms to the era of the early presidents and invited the public to view them in a television special. “The White House belongs to the American people,” she said. The White House Historical Association, which Mrs. Kennedy founded in 1961 continues today to fulfill the mission she envisioned: “to enhance understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of the historic White House.” The Association remains a lasting legacy of a presidential term unfinished.

The portrait of President John F. Kennedy by Aaron Shikler in the Cross Hall on the State Floor of the White House, 2019.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1917–1963

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, was the second son in a prominent Irish Catholic family. His father, Joseph Kennedy, was a well-known businessman, and his mother, Rose Fitzgerald, the daughter of a U.S. congressman and mayor of Boston. The family, eventually with nine children, was close knit and political, and regarded public service as a calling. They spent summers on Cape Cod, swimming, sailing, and playing touch football, and their cottage in Hyannis Port was eventually enlarged to become the Kennedy Compound, with several additional residences. Joe Kennedy had high expectations for his children, and he encouraged his sons, especially, to be athletic and competitive. All four Kennedy sons played football at Harvard. In his junior year, John Kennedy took an extended visit to London, where his father was serving as ambassador to Great Britain. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, John expanded his senior thesis into a book, Why England Slept , which examined that country’s lack of preparation for war.

World War II had already begun, and although the United States was not yet directly involved, both John and his older brother, Joe Jr., joined the U.S. Navy in 1941. Joe went to pilot school and John received special training for patrol torpedo boats, the famous PTs. In 1943 he was sent to the South Pacific and assumed command of PT 109, with a mission to agitate and sink Japanese supply ships. On patrol the night of August 1–2, 1943, his boat was struck in the inky darkness by a Japanese destroyer. Two crew members died in the fiery collision, but eleven, one badly injured, clung to the hull until morning. Despite his own injuries, Kennedy managed to get all of them to shore and then secure their rescue, six days later, with the help of native islanders friendly to the Allies. For his courage and leadership, Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and a Purple Heart. He was assigned to another PT boat but contracted malaria and was sent back to the United States. During his recovery came word that his older brother, Joe Jr., had died in an airplane accident over England. Joe had been the one his father always said would be president someday.

Joe’s death changed the trajectory of John’s life. John had thought of being a writer, but at his father’s urging, in 1946 he ran for a Boston seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and won. In Congress he represented his working-class district with a strong stand for labor and unions. He also supported U.S. foreign aid and military assistance. Well-liked and well respected, he was reelected twice before winning a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1952, defeating incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge of the old Boston aristocracy.

Kennedy now had a national reputation. In the Senate he pursued his interests in foreign affairs and in history, writing a second book that won the Pulitzer Prize, Profiles in Courage , stories of eight senators who placed service to country above their careers. In 1953 he married Jacqueline Bouvier, and their first child, Caroline, was born in 1957. Consideration as a potential vice-presidential candidate at the Democratic Convention of 1956 positioned him for a run for president in 1960.

No Roman Catholic had ever won the presidency, but Kennedy’s forceful statements about placing public service over private religious affiliation proved convincing. In his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention he introduced what he called the New Frontier, a promise to move the nation forward by increasing economic opportunity, civil rights, and military preparedness as Cold War tensions with the communist Soviet Union escalated. Facing Republican Richard M. Nixon in the nation’s first televised debate, Kennedy appeared both poised and commanding. In November he won the presidency by a narrow majority.

Portrait by Aaron Shikler of President John F. Kennedy, 1970.

The Kennedy Administration, 1961–63

Inauguration Day dawned bright and cold following a snowstorm. Standing bare headed in the sun, the new president offered not promises but a challenge. He called on foreign adversaries to “begin anew the quest for peace” and on his “fellow Americans” to “ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

One of Kennedy’s first acts as president was to create the Peace Corps, a program that sent young people to developing nations, to live among the people they helped. In addition to technical assistance for projects in health, sanitation, and education, their objective was “to promote peace and friendship.” More than seven thousand idealistic Americans, young and old, signed up. Kennedy asked Congress for legislation that increased the minimum wage, provided health insurance for the aged, and scholarship aid for those studying medicine, dentistry, and nursing. He reinvigorated America’s space program with a commitment to landing a man on the moon, and bringing him safely back to earth, “before this decade is out.”

But several months into his administration Kennedy’s attention to domestic issues was interrupted by a foreign crisis. He had approved an Eisenhower-era plan for overthrowing Cuba’s communist dictator, Fidel Castro. But when CIA-trained Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs, they were captured. Kennedy accepted full responsibility, then turned to his predecessor for wisdom, inviting former President Dwight D. Eisenhower to Camp David. Sobered by failure, Kennedy stood firm when he met Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna in June. Khrushchev sought to force the Allied powers out of Berlin, which had been divided at the end of World War II. When Kennedy would not withdraw, Khrushchev ordered a wall built between the Soviet and Allied zones of the city. Cold War tensions escalated, and a nuclear arms race resumed.

The next year brought a much more dangerous crisis. In October, when the Soviets began to install missile sites in Cuba, just 90 miles from the U.S. shores, the superpowers were brought to the brink of nuclear war. Putting the U.S. military on high alert and assembling a panel of security advisers, Kennedy considered possible responses. On October 22 he announced a quarantine of the island and sent the U.S. Navy to enforce it. As Soviet ships with supplies for the missile sites approached, the whole world was watching. At the last minute the ships turned around, and in the next days behind the scenes communications between Kennedy and Khrushchev opened a resolution. Khrushchev agreed to remove the Cuban missiles if Kennedy would promise that the United States would not invade Cuba and, in an agreement secret at the time, would remove U.S. missiles in Turkey, aimed at the Soviet heartland. On November 2 Kennedy announced that “progress is now being made toward peace in the Caribbean.”

Meanwhile Kennedy and the nation faced a series of domestic crises over civil rights. In 1954 the Supreme Court had ordered that racial segregation in schools be ended, but southern resistance was strong. Violence against protests by young people sitting in at lunch counters, riding interstate buses, and attempting to attend previously all-white state colleges led Attorney General Robert Kennedy, John Kennedy’s younger brother and closest adviser, to send in federal marshals, again and again. In June 1963, when the governor of Alabama, George Wallace, “stood in the schoolhouse door,” as he promised, to prevent African Americans from registering at the University of Alabama, President Kennedy went on television to address the issue of civil rights head on. It is not a sectional issue, he said, not a partisan issue, or even just a legal or legislative issue, but “a moral issue.” “The heart of the question,” he continued, “is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.” He called on Congress to enact legislation protecting the rights of all Americans to be served in places of public accommodation and to vote without penalty or intimidation.

Kennedy’s comprehensive civil rights bill was under debate in Congress, when, in August, a March on Washington brought a quarter of a million supporters to the National Mall. From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Joan Baez and the Freedom Singers led the crowd in “We Shall Overcome,” and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. challenged the nation “to rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed . . . ‘that all men are created equal.’” In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson shepherded the Civil Rights Act through Congress in tribute to Kennedy, and a Voting Rights Act followed the next year.

Kennedy’s confidence in the purpose of America and in Americans’ ability to solve problems seemed on the way to being realized that summer. In June, at a commencement address at American University, he announced that his topic would be “the most important on earth: world peace.” “Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I’m talking about genuine peace,” he said, “the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for all their children—not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women—not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.” He called on Americans to “reexamine our attitude toward the Soviet Union,” not to give in to propaganda and distorted views that “see conflict as inevitable, accommodation as impossible, and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.” “Let us direct our attention to our common interests,” he said, “for, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”

At the end of the speech Kennedy announced negotiations under way for a nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviets; it was signed in August, and a few weeks later a “hot line” was installed, a direct link between Washington and Moscow that would permit instantaneous communication between the superpowers. Visiting the Berlin Wall that summer, Kennedy repeated his themes of freedom and peace. “Freedom is indivisible,” he said. “Lift your eyes beyond the dangers to today, to the hopes of tomorrow . . . to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.”

The Kennedy Family in the White House

Not since the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt had there been little children in the White House. Caroline was three when the Kennedys moved in, and John just two months old. Photographs of them romping with their father in the Oval Office and of Caroline riding her pony, Macaroni, on the White House lawn endeared this young family to all Americans, of all political persuasions. When Khrushchev sent Caroline a white puppy, Pushinka, and when Pushinka and the family’s beloved Welsh terrier, Charlie, had puppies together, the photo ops were irresistible.

Yet Jacqueline Kennedy was protective of her children, wanting to preserve for them as normal a childhood as possible. She established a preschool for Caroline on the Third Floor of the White House and invited friends’ children to join. Always she sought to carve out a private, affectionate life for her family, even as she recognized her responsibilities as America’s first lady.

This photograph shows President John F. Kennedy with Caroline, John, Jr., and Caroline's pony, Macaroni. They stand just outside of the Oval Office, beside the Rose Garden and West Colonnade.

Summers the family spent in the Kennedy Compound on Cape Cod, with cousins and all the outdoor games that the Kennedys had always played with vigor. At other times of the year they escaped, when they could to a farm called Glen Ora, near Middleburg, Virginia, where Mrs. Kennedy, an excellent horsewoman, enjoyed the freedom of riding through open fields. Palm Beach, where Joe Kennedy had a large stucco house, was another sanctuary, and often where the Kennedys spent holidays with their many relatives.

Jacqueline Kennedy wanted a comfortable home for her family, and her first task on moving into the White House was to remake the upstairs quarters with her children in mind. A kitchen and private dining room were added, and the furnishings changed to suit the domestic life of a young family. But her lasting contributions were to the decor of the State Floor rooms , which she restored and furnished with antiques as well as some original pieces donated back to the White House with the encouragement of her advisory committee. As much as possible, she hoped the public spaces could be a repository for American fine arts and decorative arts. She pushed Congress for legislation that made certain the furnishings were not sold off again at auction, as had been the practice in the past.

She established the White House Historical Association , hired the mansion’s first curator, and edited its first guidebook—proceeds from which continue to be used to acquire furnishings and preserve the historic fabric of the White House. The Executive Residence’s historic setting on Lafayette Square led to yet another project. Together the Kennedys preserved the square as a nineteenth-century residential neighborhood, its central park a green retreat in marble Washington. Outside the Oval Office they planted a Rose Garden that was both a private retreat and a ceremonial platform.

To this elegant setting the Kennedys invited the nation’s famous writers, artists, and musicians for both formal and informal events. They wanted the White House to showcase American performing arts and to serve as a stage for symbolizing the best of America and the American presidency. Their commitment to federal support for the arts would, in the years ahead, be realized in the National Endowments for the Arts and for the Humanities and in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts , built on the shore of the Potomac River in Washington.

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy stands before television cameras in the State Dining Room during her televised tour of the White House, 1962.

The Kennedy Christmas Celebrations

For the family’s first Christmas in the White House, Jacqueline Kennedy decorated the official White House Christmas tree, set up in the Blue Room, with tiny toys, birds, sugarplum fairies, and angels that evoked Petr Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet. Thus began a tradition of White House tree decorations that carry out a specific theme. The 1962 tree, in the North Entrance, continued the children’s theme with brightly wrapped packages, candy canes, gingerbread cookies, and straw ornaments made by disabled and senior citizens from across the United States. Mrs. Kennedy visited a local children’s hospital to give presents to sick children who would not be home for Christmas. The Kennedys generally traveled to Palm Beach for Christmas Day, where members of the large extended family often gathered. The children hung stockings and put on Christmas pageants, and all went to Christmas Mass together. In 1962 the personal gifts were chosen with great care. Knowing her love of French art, John Kennedy gave his wife a drawing by the French Impressionist Pierre Auguste Renoir. Knowing his love of the sea, Jacqueline Kennedy gave her husband a piece of scrimshaw carved with the Presidential Seal. Caroline wanted a doll, and John a helicopter.

Planning for Christmas 1963 was almost completed by November 21, when John and Jacqueline Kennedy flew to Texas for a three-day visit. The annual Christmas card was already printed—a color photograph of an eighteenth-century crèche that was displayed for the holidays in the East Room— and cards for thirty friends and supporters had been signed. John Kennedy had purchased a fur coverlet as a present for his wife, and he had learned to speak enough French to surprise her on Christmas Day.

The Kennedy Legacy

News of Kennedy’s death shocked Americans and shook the entire world. Leaders from more than ninety nations attended the funeral . It was too soon to speak of a legacy, but it is clear now that the Kennedys changed the character of the White House forever. John Kennedy’s daring and optimism inspired Americans to take pride in their achievements and to commit to public service. Kennedy was president in a dangerous time, and his leadership, both clear-eyed and calm, worked always toward peace.

President John F. Kennedy's flag-draped casket is seen carried on a horse-drawn caisson as his funeral procession leaves the White House, 1963.

After she left the White House, Jacqueline Kennedy sought the private life she had always wanted, for herself and her children. She returned only once , on February 3, 1971, privately and in secret, to view the official portraits by Aaron Shikler. “The day I always dreaded,” she wrote in a thank-you to First Lady Pat Nixon , “turned out to be one of the most precious ones I spent with my children.”

This was originally published on February 17, 2020

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Warning of ‘Extreme’ Agenda, Biden Calls for Supreme Court Overhaul

In a speech in Austin, Texas, the president outlined a proposal that included term limits and an enforceable ethics code for the justices but that faces long odds in a divided Congress.

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Biden Calls for Supreme Court Reforms

The president outlined his proposals for major changes to the supreme court, including imposing term limits and creating an enforceable code of ethics on the justices..

We need a mandatory code of ethics for the Supreme Court, and we need it now. We’ve had term limits for presidents of the United States for nearly 75 years, after the Truman administration. And I believe we should have term limits for Supreme Court justices in the United States as well. I’m calling for a constitutional amendment. Called No One Is Above the Law Amendment. I mean this sincerely. It holds no immunity for crimes former president committed while in office. My fellow Americans, based on all my experience, I’m certain we need these reforms. We need these reforms to restore trust in the courts, preserve the system of checks and balances that are vital to our democracy. We’re also common sense reforms that a vast majority of the American people support, as well as leading constitutional law scholars, progressives and conservatives.

By Katie Rogers

Katie Rogers covers the White House and reported from Austin, Texas.

• July 29, 2024

President Biden, warning that the country’s courts were being weaponized as part of an “extreme and unchecked” conservative agenda, said on Monday that he would push for legislation that would bring major changes to the Supreme Court, including term limits and an enforceable code of ethics on the justices.

Mr. Biden detailed his plans in a speech at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, Texas, his first public engagement since announcing his decision to end his presidential campaign last week.

His visit was initially scheduled to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. But it quickly became a venue for Mr. Biden to begin buttoning up a 51-year legislative legacy while outlining an election-year intention to try to stop what many in his party feel is the Supreme Court’s ideological drift into conservatism.

The proposal would require congressional approval and has little hope of gaining traction in a Republican-controlled House and a divided Senate. In a social media post, Speaker Mike Johnson called the plan “dead on arrival” in the House. (Mr. Biden later said onstage that Mr. Johnson’s “thinking is dead on arrival.”)

Earlier this month, the court issued a 6-to-3 ruling that grants broad immunity to presidents from prosecution for actions they take while in office. Mr. Biden called for a constitutional amendment that would limit such immunity .

“For all practical purposes, the court’s decision almost certainly means that the president can violate the oath, flout our laws and face no consequences,” Mr. Biden said. “Folks, just imagine what a president could do trampling civil rights and liberties, given such immunity.”

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Where past and present coexist: White House furniture is America's living history

Whose cosmopolitan tastes triggered a 'made in america' law who bought a secondhand billiard table who decorated with woven textiles from appalachian craftswomen come along for the tour..

Furnishing a big house is challenging enough. Imagine one more than two centuries old, with 132 rooms that must meet the needs of a family and a global executive office. And make it a showcase for high ceremony and official entertaining, while accommodating 500,000 visitors each year. And a major tourist attraction with thousands of museum-quality objects.

The  story of White House furnishings  – including furniture, ceramics, glass, metals, lighting fixtures, clocks, textiles and other decorative objects – reflects continuous changes in our nation’s tastes and styles.  With each passing year, the White House has become a historic site where the past and present coexist. 

“There is a unique community to knowing your predecessors have walked these halls, have written on these tables, have sat in these chairs,” Laura Bush said.

George Washington was given $25,000 a year for expenses and stocked his presidential residences in New York and Philadelphia with furniture, linens, carpets, glassware, china, flatware, clocks, lighting fixtures and bedding. Though Washington sought a “plain and neat” look to avoid the trappings of luxury, political opponents accused him of extravagance. (Visiting Europeans disagreed.)

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store .

Rebuilding the White House

Washington’s successors dressed up the state rooms and filled the new executive mansion. But when British invaders swept into the house in August 1814 , they piled the furniture in the center of each room as they set fires that destroyed everything except Gilbert Stuart’s famous portrait of Washington, which was saved along with a few other items.  

As he rebuilt the White House, James Monroe acquired works of some of France’s finest craftsmen that still endure as White House treasures, including a bronze centerpiece, clocks and candelabras, porcelain dessert services and gilded furniture. But Monroe’s cosmopolitan tastes triggered a backlash, and Congress passed a law saying that White House furniture needed to be made in America “as far as practicable.”   

A growing populist wind ensnared Monroe’s successor John Quincy Adams, who was attacked as he ran for reelection for the purchase of a secondhand billiard table . A widely published poem read:

John Adams Q, my Joe John,

Now don’t you think ‘twas rash

For billiard balls and cues, John

To spend the people’s cash?

Upgrading to high-quality furniture

Adams lost to Andrew Jackson, whose supporters poured into the White House after his inaugural, smashing china and glassware and standing on satin-covered chairs with muddy boots to see their hero. The new president had to be rescued through a window. Jackson purchased high-quality furnishings of his own, including cut-glass chandeliers and cutlery made by Napoleon’s silversmith. (Along with 20 East Room spittoons for $12.50.) He carved ornamental rays over a doorway with gilded stars. 

White House history can't be rewritten: How early presidents failed enslaved people

Martin Van Buren’s regality – silver wallpaper, gold leaf and fashionable Bourbon Restoration bedsteads – also fueled attacks that helped cost him reelection.

“What, sir, will the honest locofoco say to Mr. Van Buren for spending the people’s cash in foreign Fanny Kemble green finger cups in which to wash his pretty, tapering, soft, white, lily fingers, after dining on fricandeau de veau and omelet soufflé?” said Congressman Charles Ogle from the floor of the House of Representatives, in what has become known as the  Gold Spoon Oration .

The post-Civil War years included historic purchases such as Ulysses Grant’s Renaissance Revival cabinet table , which has been used many times since for the signing of international peace treaties. 

The Resolute Desk , made from oak timbers from the British ship HMS Resolute and gifted to Rutherford Hayes by Queen Victoria, has served as the Oval Office desk for many presidents.

The changing tides of fashion

As the decades passed, older pieces were often sold.  Chester Arthur packed up 30 barrels of china for sale and sent 24 wagon loads of furniture, carpets, mantles, chandeliers and lace curtains off to auction. He commissioned Louis Tiffany to install “new aesthetic” works that infused art into lighting fixtures, upholstery and glass-tiled fireplace mantels – along with a showpiece  stained-glass screen  encrusted with topaz, ruby and amethyst.

But as fashions changed, this late 19th century era of busyness and pattern gave way to a Colonial Revival that looked back to our country’s origins and early years, dignified and tasteful with simpler, more spacious-feeling interiors. 

“It seems to embody,” said one adviser, “many of the characteristics of rugged worth and stern necessity that were identified with the early struggles of our ancestors.”

First ladies often played a personal role in shaping the character of White House furnishings.  Ellen Wilson bought woven textiles and baskets from Appalachian craftswomen, while Eleanor Roosevelt bought four coverlets made at a New Deal Works Progress Administration project.  Grace Coolidge crocheted her own coverlet for the Lincoln Bed – and published the pattern in leading newspapers.  

The impact of the Kennedys

It was the Kennedy presidency and  Jacqueline Kennedy’s leadership  that brought White House furnishings into a new era. She pored through old photos, scoured storerooms and launched a broader vision to ensure that the White House would be a living museum, representing the finest examples of American furnishings and offering a vital source of history for Americans. Scholarly research on White House furnishings was commissioned, and a professional White House curator was hired.  

A new Fine Arts Committee for the White House helped locate and raise funds to buy older White House furniture that had been dispersed. It also set down a new governing philosophy that endures today – that the White House and its furnishings should represent the living, evolving character of the presidency and the variety of styles of all eras.  

You can take a White House tour. Here's why Jacqueline Kennedy deserves some credit.

Mrs. Kennedy also launched a printed  White House guidebook , with the proceeds paying to restore and buy objects. When she went on national television to offer Americans a tour of the White House, a third of the nation watched, responding with a flood of telegrams (and offers of their own family heirlooms). 

Jacqueline Kennedy also founded the nonprofit White House Historical Association to help ensure that historic furnishings could be regularly acquired, preserved and shared with the American people. We’re proud to be publishing a comprehensive,  lavishly illustrated new book  – with contributions from four White House curators representing more than a hundred years of experience – that shows how the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue tells a story of America’s history, room by room.

More than two centuries after the White House was burned to the ground, a computerized inventory now tracks 60,000 objects. An off-site storage facility provides acid-free storage and temperature and humidity controls for fragile antiques. The White House is even accredited by the American Association of Museums, and its museum-quality furnishings have made it an unparalleled resource for the study of American decorative arts.  

The White House also offers a living history of our country for everyone who enters, from presidents to grade school students. 

As Lady Bird Johnson said, “When I walked through the rooms of the White House, I had a constant sense of a host of companions. I knew that I walked with history.” 

Stewart D. McLaurin is a member of the USA TODAY Board of Contributors and president of the White House Historical Association , a private nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1961 to privately fund maintaining the museum standard of the White House and to provide publications and programs on White House history.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page , on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter .

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Free The White House Essay Sample

The White house is a magnificent building with early architectural designs. Event surrounding its constructions are significant. The following paper will look into the design and forms of the building and this means that the Whitehouse communicates in relation to its environs.

Today, the house where the president resides, the White House, is a symbol of influence and power to the United States and across the world. According to George Washington, the building should be a palace that reflects a nation with a federal government that is strong. Achievement of this vision is not through decorative elements and ornamentation, but only through future events that would shape the country and future leaders who would reside in the palace.

The site is on the Potomac River for its geographic location is central though, at that time the surroundings were mainly forests and farms. This land where the white house stands reflects the new republic’s ideas. James Hoban is the designer of the white house. He inculcates the European architectural style, Palladian architecture. The Palladianism the white house depicts are appealing in that it its form is almost that of early neoclassicism.

The south façade resembles Castle Coole design of James Wyatt of 1790; the façade to the north lacks a floor when we compare it with Leinster House, whereas the façade to the south has one more floor with reference to Castle Coole. It has a staircase that is external, this in the Palladian design. The south front has a bow front; interior details in the Blue Room include former niches. Decorations of garland are above the entrance to the north, and beneath window hood pediments are patterns of fish scale.

During the war in 1814, British soldiers set the white house on fire. A thunderstorm of the summer is responsible for putting out the fire. After the burning, of the palace, the rebuilding process starts, and the application of white paint to mask the effects of the fire is the reason many believe is behind the White House name. The white house consists of 132 rooms, two basements, six floors, floors belonging to the public are two and those belonging to the first family, two.

For the preservation of the architectural designs of the white house, no changes are possible without consulting the preservation committee. The west wing which accommodates the president’s oval office, this portion is the setting for the popular screen show: west wing. The wing to the east which we formally call the first lady’s office, its utilization during the second war to conceal the underground bunker construction for emergencies makes it of extraordinary significance.

The grounds surrounding the White House are over eighteen acres, The North loan blooms with large trees that obscure the house from the avenue of Pennsylvania. The White House is indeed a symbol of integrity and power, with its magnificent internal and external designs it stands out as a historical structure that calls for preservation. The events surrounding its construction and its relation to its environment are meaningful to all Americans.

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The White House

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Essay title: The White House

The White House has undergone four major phases of construction with its beginnings in 1792 and subsequent reconstruction in 1817 and renovations in 1902 and 1948-1952 (The White House-construction: website). In 1901 President Theodore Roosevelt officially named the President’s residence the “White House” (The White House-name: website). The White House is the oldest known government building and has undergone many changes including styles, rooms, and outward appearance.

It all started in 1792 when architect James Hoban worked with George Washington, and they decided that the new two-story structure would be made of stone or brick, enhanced by elegant gardens and lawns. In 1807 pavilions and terraces were added to the east and west sides of the main building (The White House-structure: website). The British set fire to the house during the War of 1812. The interior was destroyed while the exterior walls remained intact (The White House-fire: website). In 1815 James Hoban rebuilt the White House the same way it was first built (The White House-structure: website). The south portico was built in 1824. In 1829 James Hoban made his final contribution to the White House by completing the north portico (The White House-building: website). Also added were ornamental iron fences which surround the structure and running water was piped into the house (The White House-water: website). Next, Andrew Jackson creates the White House orangey in 1835 which is demolished in 1857 to make room for a new treasury wing. A replacement greenhouse was constructed on the west side, adjoining the state floor of the White House (The White House-greenhouse: website). In 1871 Ulysses Grant extended the White House grounds south and a great round pool was built on the south lawn. In 1873 another round pool was built on the north lawn (The White House-pool: website). Conservatories and greenhouses were removed from the west lawn and long windowed galleries were built on the east and west sides of the main building in 1902 (The White House-gallery: website). For many years business of state was transacted on the upper floors, but under Theodore Roosevelt, in 1902, a West Wing was added to provide an office for the president, a cabinet room, and other office quarters (Encyclopedia Americana 722). President Coolidge had a rooftop solarium built to create private space, as a new roof was added and the old attic was turned into a full third floor in 1927 (The White House-attic: website). In 1942 an East Wing office building was added to the east terrace, including a bomb shelter and a movie theatre (The White House-east wing: website).

There are many different rooms in the White House. The Blue Room has always been used as a reception room except for a brief period during the administration of John Adams when it served as the south entrance hall (The White House-blue room: website). The Vermeil, sometimes called the gold room, was last refurbished in 1991; it serves as a display room and for formal occasions, as a ladies sitting room (The White House-vermeil room: website). The Diplomatic Reception Room serves as an entrance to the White House from the south grounds for the family and for ambassadors arriving to present their credentials to the president (The White House-dip. Rec. room: website). The Library on the ground floor houses a large selection of books by American writers on American topics (Inside the White House 137). The China Room on the ground floor of the White House exhibits dishes used by presidents for nearly two centuries (Inside the White House 157). The Map Room, used by President Franklin Roosevelt as a situation room from which to follow the course of World War II, now serves as a private meeting room for the president or the First Lady (The White House-map room: website). The State Dining Room, which now seats as many as 140 guests, was originally much smaller and served at various times as a drawing room, office, and cabinet room (The White House-st. dining room: website). The East Room normally contains little furniture and traditionally is used for large gatherings, such as dances, after-dinner entertainments, concerts, weddings, funerals, award presentations, press conferences, and bill signing ceremonies (The White House-east room: website). The Red Room has usually served as a parlor or sitting room; recent presidents have had small dinner parties here (The White House-red room: website). Currently used as a bedroom for guests of the president, the Lincoln Bedroom derives from the time when Abraham Lincoln used it as an office and cabinet room (The White House-Lincoln bedroom: website). Designated by James Hoban, as a common dining room, the Green Room has since functioned as a drawing for small receptions, tea parties, and even as a card room under James Monroe (The White House-green room: website). President

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How Joe Biden Brought Watch Collecting Back to the White House

This is an edition of the newsletter Box + Papers, Cam Wolf’s weekly deep dive into the world of watches. Sign up here.

On Wednesday night, as President Biden addressed the nation and elaborated on his decision to end his reelection campaign , his watch became a viral talking point online. This wasn’t the first time one of Biden’s timepieces was in the spotlight —nor is it uncommon for watches to be an important chess piece in global politicking—but this latest incident struck a darker tone. Conspiracy theorists presented photos that made it appear Biden’s watch wasn’t set to the correct time of his address, implying his speech wasn’t given live as advertised. This was a fabrication. ( Apparently, some people need to refamiliarize themselves with how analog clocks work.) It was, however, a fitting note to strike as Biden’s term comes to a close, given that the current president helped reverse decades of trends and put a watch collector back in our country’s highest office.

Biden with his Rolex Datejust Wednesday night

Throughout the ’90s and ’00s, the Oval Office was a wasteland of horological taste. Long before a tan suit inspired a headline-making controversy , presidential nominee Bill Clinton was similarly lambasted for his accessory game. In 1993, The Washington Post ’s Gene Weingarten wrote a 1,000-word screed against Clinton’s Timex Ironman Triathlon, describing it as “thick as a brick and handsome as a hernia.” Weingarten argued that a certain dignity is expected of the president and even suggested that stock prices might slip because of his unserious wristwear. Before Clinton, presidents like John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson wore gold Rolex Day-Dates and elegant Cartier Tanks . Weingarten must have hoped some of that old glamour would return.

But Clinton’s Timex started a tradition that lasted until Donald Trump took office in 2016. George W. Bush and Barack Obama both favored humbler watches: Bush wore a Timex Easy Reader throughout his presidency; Obama mostly stuck to a Jorg Gray he was given as a present by the Secret Service. These modest pieces were in fact instruments of political strategy, selected to make the chief executives seem like everyday people—the sort of watches worn by a guy you’d want to get a beer with. (Both Obama and Clinton ditched this charade after their presidencies were over. Clinton, in particular, has accumulated a world-class collection that includes expensive pieces from A. Lange & Söhne , Panerai, and Audemars Piguet.)

Our most recent two presidents broke from that horological pandering. Trump was known for wearing pricey pieces like the Vacheron Constantin Historiques 1968, Rolex Day-Date, and Patek Philippe Ellipse. Biden’s collection, meanwhile, is particularly special—full of watches with deep ties and significance to American history and the office of the president. “President Biden clearly has a passion for watches and has a varied collection,” said Eric Wind, the owner of Wind Vintage, who has studied the horological preferences of every head of state in US history . I’m so tired of the Kamala Harris–inspired jokes already, but it’s too fitting not to say that Biden’s collection exists in the context of all in which we live and what came before us and is unburdened by what has been.

Biden is ready for #SpeedyTuesday

Biden’s Omega Speedmaster is arguably his most notable presidential watch. The Speedmaster is famous for its role in one of America’s greatest accomplishments—the moon landing. The story is well known by now: The Speedy, the only NASA-approved flight watch, was worn by both Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they took those iconic first steps on the lunar surface. Shortly thereafter, Omega offered a special-edition gold version to President Nixon, but he declined. So when Biden finally wore his Speedy in 2021, he became the first president ever to wear this historic watch in office. (One bit of weirdness around the president’s Speedmaster: After wearing his real-deal Speedy in public on several occasions, Biden appeared to don a fake version of the watch to a meeting with Ron DeSantis in 2021. The mystery is still puzzling watch spotters .)

President Biden has also worn “the president’s watch.” No, not Rolex’s Day-Date, widely known as the “Presidential.” The other watch worthy of that title comes from the maker Vulcain. In 1953, Harry Truman received a Vulcain Cricket as a gift from the White House Press Photographer’s Association. Vulcan pounced on its new connection to the office and started gifting its watch to sitting presidents. This practice stalled out in the ‘70s but was was revived in the next decade with the help of Finnish jeweler Keijo Paajanen. Now, the watch is still regularly given to presidents during visits to Finland. Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon all wore the Cricket publicly.

The Cricket’s built-in alarm clock made it a fitting piece for busy sitting presidents. Nixon wrote to Vulcain that the watch “has served as my alarm clock around the world.” Biden followed suit and also wore the Cricket while he was Obama’s vice president. That may have been a signal of greater aspirations, Wind suggests. “Wearing it showed he was interested in tradition and seemed to be indicating his own interest in becoming president one day,” the dealer says.

Biden and his "Bond" Omega Seamaster

And while Trump’s collection aligns with the tastes of a man who outfitted a building with gold toilets, Biden’s watches convey a more rugged image. Maybe the watch he wore the most throughout his presidency was an Omega Seamaster Diver, a favorite of other dignitaries (the stainless steel sport watch is Prince William’s daily driver ) and one fictional superspy (it’s the first Omega worn onscreen by James Bond). A timepiece that’s elegant, under-the-radar, and hardy enough for 007? An extremely solid choice for the most powerful leader in the world.

Biden celebrating his election victory with his Seiko

That’s not to say that Biden’s collection was lacking in everyman appeal. During his presidential campaign, Biden largely put away his luxury timepieces in favor of a Seiko 7T32-6M90 Chronograph. The timing of Biden’s sudden love affair with the Seiko is notable as it came during the heat of his campaign against Trump. The watch, which looks like it would be most comfortable in a Macy’s jewelry case, was certainly one way to draw a stark contrast with Trump’s more opulent wristwear.

But Biden’s watch collection isn’t just burdened by what’s come before him. During some of his most consequential moments, like his inauguration, Biden wore the same Rolex Datejust with a blue dial that he wore Wednesday night. The watch shows that Biden wasn’t just following presidential trends in office but creating them, too. “His 41mm Rolex Datejust that he wore to his Inauguration stirred up a lot of attention and has garnered the nickname the ‘Biden Blue,’” Wind told me.

And if Biden’s succession goes as planned, his horological legacy will remain intact. His vice president, Kamala Harris, like many tasteful collectors in 2024, is a Cartier stan—she owns the brand’s discontinued Roadster but mostly wears her Ballon Bleu.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Claude Mckay — The White House: A Critical Analysis of Claude McKay’s Poem

The White House: a Critical Analysis of Claude Mckay's Poem

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Published: Mar 6, 2024

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Papers of john f. kennedy. presidential papers. white house central subject files.

Apply to Be a White House Fellow

Eligibility Requirements

• Applicants must be U.S. citizens.
• Employees of the Federal government are not eligible unless they are career military personnel.
• Applicants must have completed their undergraduate education by the time they begin the application process.

Selection Criteria

Selection as a White House Fellow is based on a combination of the following criteria:

• A record of remarkable professional achievement early in one’s career.
• Evidence of leadership skills and the potential for further growth.
• A demonstrated commitment to public service.
• The skills to succeed at the highest levels of the Federal government, and the ability to work effectively as part of a team.

The Selection Process

The selection process is very competitive. The White House Fellows Program office processes the applications and former Fellows screen the applications to identify the most promising candidates. Approximately 100 of the most qualified applicants are selected to be Regional Finalists and are interviewed by eight to ten Regional Panels across the country.

Regional Finalists participate in an evening event, followed by a full day of interviews. The interviews are typically conducted in April each year in different cities across the country with 10 – 13 Finalists participating in each Regional Panel. Distinguished citizens from the city where each Regional Panel is held conduct the interviews. Based on the results of the interviews, the Regional Panels select approximately thirty candidates to proceed to the final round of interviews in June of each year, as National Finalists.

National Finalists participate in “Selection Weekend,” which includes three evenings and two days of interviews with members of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. After spending Selection Weekend interviewing, interacting with, and observing the National Finalists, the Commissioners recommend those individuals (between 11 and 19) it finds most qualified for the Fellowship to the President for appointment as White House Fellows.

Those selected as White House Fellows travel to Washington DC in July for “Placement Week” to interview with Principals in the White House, the Cabinet, and other government agencies. The Principals and Fellows indicate their desired preferences to the Program Director. The Director determines the placement of each Fellow’s work placement for the Fellowship year.

The White House Fellows undergo orientation and onboarding in mid-August, and begin their work placements in September.

The Written Application

The process to be selected as a White House Fellow is extremely competitive. A well-prepared application and carefully selected references are key components to a successful application. Developing a clear, comprehensive, and competitive application is estimated to take at least 25 hours, so the President’s Commission encourages you to start the process as soon as possible.

Click here to view the questions that are asked on the application.

The application has six major sections: 1. Personal Information 2. Recommendations 3. Declarations 4. Resume 5. Essays 6. Certification

The elements required in Sections 1, 3, 4, and 6 are fairly straightforward and probably similar to what you have seen with other job applications. Section 2: Recommendations, includes very specific guidance, and warrants close attention. Section 5: Essays are the critical component of the application to become a White House Fellow, and they are also the most difficult portion of the application. We will discuss the essays in detail.

The Essay Questions

The six essays that applicants must write are generally viewed as both the most difficult and most important element of the written application. The six essays, each with specific word limits, are as follows:

Current Employment : Provide a brief description of the work you currently perform. This should expand on, not repeat, the information provided in the resume section of the application. Please limit your narrative to 200 words.

Most Significant Achievement ‒ Professional : Describe in 200 words or fewer what you consider to be your most significant professional contribution.

Most Significant Achievement ‒ Community Service : Describe in 200 words or fewer what you consider to be your most significant voluntary contribution to your community.

Lifetime Goals : Describe in 300 words or fewer your life’s ambition, what you hope to accomplish or achieve in your lifetime, and what position you hope to attain.

Memorandum for the President : Write a memorandum for the President making a specific policy proposal. Explain why you think it is important, what issues it raises, and why you think the President should support your proposal. Please limit your memo to 500 words.

Motivation for Becoming a White House Fellow : Describe your motivation for applying to the White House Fellows program, what you consider to be your major strengths and qualifications for the program, and what benefits you feel are likely to result for society from your participation. Please limit your narrative to 300 words.

The on-line application will allow you to revise and save your work in draft form until you are ready to submit your final application prior to the deadline in January. We recommend that you polish and proof your essays carefully. During the selection process your essays will be studied closely. We urge you to make the most cogent and compelling arguments possible, and ensure your application is free of any typos or misspellings.

The Regional Interviews

On the basis of the written applications the President’s Commission will select approximately 100 Regional Finalists. The Regional Finalists will typically interview in cities across the country, usually during the month of April. At each of the Regional Interviews about a dozen Regional Finalists will go through a day and a half of interviews.

The “Regionals” typically involve an introductory dinner the night before in which the finalists meet and get to know the other candidates and the regional panelists who will be interviewing them. The following day each of the Regional Finalists goes through a series of structured interviews. The interviews are 20 minutes each. Each interview normally involves one Regional Finalist, and two or three panelists. The panelists will have studied your written application in detail, and they will ask a series of questions about you, and about your application.

Typically the essays you write will generate the most questions. And of these, typically the Memorandum for the President will generate more questions than the other essays. For that reason, we recommend you place particular emphasis on this essay when you are composing your written application. Following the Regional Interviews the President’s Commission will select approximately 30 finalists to proceed to the final round of National Interviews, which are held in June.

The National Interviews

Typically, those selected as National Finalists will travel to the Washington, D.C. area in June for the final round of interviews. The National Interviews, often referred to as “Selection Weekend” involve a series of interviews with the members of the President’s Commission over the course of two-and-a-half days.

The elements of the interview process at “Nationals” are similar to those at “Regionals”. There will typically be a dinner on the evening prior and the interviews themselves will be 20 minutes each. The difference is there will be more of them. At “Regionals” people typically go through four (4) formal 20-minute interviews. At “Nationals” people typically go through at least ten (10) formal 20-minute interviews.

In addition to the formal interviews there are typically several meals and other activities at “Nationals” during which the Commissioners have the opportunity to evaluate the National Finalists in both formal and informal situations, as well as in both individual and group situations. Following the National Interviews the Commissioners will select from 11 to 19 of the finalists to become White House Fellows. The range of 11 to 19 is to give the Commissioners some numerical flexibility in the selection. In recent years the White House Fellows classes have averaged 14 to 16 people.

The Placement Interviews

Those selected as White House Fellows return to Washington, D.C. about a month after “Selection Weekend” for “Placement Week”. During “Placement Week” the new White House Fellows interview with various offices in the Executive Branch (including at various departments, agencies, and in the White House). The interviews are based on both the interests of the Fellows themselves, and the interests and needs of the Executive Branch offices.

In a typical year there will be about twice as many offices that wish to have a Fellow as there will be Fellows to place. Each Fellow will be asked to prioritize the list of potential assignments. In parallel, each office that wishes to have a Fellow will rank order the Fellows based on their backgrounds, capability, and expertise. Thus, during “Placement Week” each new Fellow will go through multiple placement interviews with various departments and agencies, some of which may have been on their preferred list, and others of which may have been at the request of the department or agency.

The Fellows may go to several follow-up interviews during “Placement Week” as well. Following the interviews, the Director of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, in consultation with White House, Department, and Agency officials, will determine the work placement for each Fellow.

Selection Timeline

• Fall/Winter – The Live Application Period: The online application goes “live” each year on November 1st . The application is submitted online and must be completed by early to mid-January (the date varies slightly year by year).
• Winter/Spring – Regional Finalist Selection and Interviews: Applicants are notified in March if they have been selected as Regional Finalists. If selected, they will be notified of the time and location for their Regional Interview. Regional Interviews typically occur in April of each year.
• May – National Finalists Notification: National Finalists selected from the Regional Interviews are notified in May of each year.
• June – Selection Weekend: National finalists are interviewed over a two-and-a-half day period by the members of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships – typically in early June of each year. The Commission then recommends a class of Fellows to the President for approval.
• July – Placement Week: Fellows interview with principals in the White House and various government agencies during Placement Week. The principals and Fellows indicate their desired preferences to the Program Director. The Director determines each Fellow’s work placement.
• August to August: Inclusive dates of the Fellowship year.

Videos and Other Resources

Learn more about the White House Fellowship from our digital resources below. We encourage you to spread the word and share these materials with other emerging leaders who may be interested in applying.

• Brochure: White House Fellowship Overview
• Read about Fellows’ efforts on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic
• Read reflections from the Class of 1969-70, one of the very first classes of Fellows
• Video : Demystifying the Written Application for the White House Fellowship

We invite all interested and qualified candidates to apply to the White House Fellows Program. The Program is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to persons with disabilities throughout the application process and through the Program itself. 

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How Kamala Harris’ Running Mate Could Undercut the Central Theme of Her Campaign

She probably should not pick a vp nominee who’s hostile to a pillar of the first amendment..

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is reportedly under serious consideration to become vice president and presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ running mate. And, in a certain sense, there are good reasons for this: Democrats badly want (some would argue need) to win Pennsylvania. Shapiro is, by all accounts, quite popular in the state he runs. He won the governorship handily in 2022 against Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, proponent of Christian nationalist ideas—which Shapiro proved unafraid to tackle head-on.

Shapiro is Jewish and has spoken strongly about and against antisemitism, which will surely be a theme in the 2024 presidential election. Republican candidate Donald Trump wonders aloud how any Jew could vote for a Democrat even as his son hosts a fundraiser with pundit Tucker Carlson, promoter of antisemitic conspiracy theories. Republicans reportedly see Shapiro as a threat, while progressive Pennsylvania state Sen. Nikil Saval touted his “strong willingness to build coalitions with people that he also disagrees with, and to change his views and policies through that act of coalition-building.”

And yet, for all of this, there are demerits to Shapiro, too. In the New Republic, the leftist Jewish writer David Klion made the case that Shapiro could threaten Democratic unity . Some of this is for domestic reasons. (More than two dozen public education advocacy groups wrote a letter asking Harris not to select Shapiro over his support for private school vouchers.) And some of this is because of Shapiro’s stance on Israel: As Klion notes, Shapiro, when attorney general, backed the state’s anti–boycott, divestment, and sanctions law, describing BDS as “rooted in antisemitism.” The Forward described Shapiro as having been “been a fixture at local rallies supporting Israel during its repeated wars in Gaza.” And his support has remained constant in this war, too: During a radio show on Oct. 11, Shapiro said, “We need to gird ourselves for what appears to be, you know, going to be a long war and we need to remain on the side of Israel.” Since then, as the Philadelphia Inquirer put it, he has “ resisted ” calls for a cease-fire. This past spring, as pro-Palestinian protests took place on campuses across the United States, the governor called on the University of Pennsylvania to “disband the encampment and to restore order and safety on campus” and implied a parallel between white supremacists and students protesting their university’s policies vis-à-vis Israel and the war in Gaza.

All of this could very well hurt Democratic unity and suppress voter turnout on the political left. Nominating Shapiro would also signify an embrace of an understanding of antisemitism that some American Jews contest , issuing a ruling on American Jewish political identity that many would chafe against (though so too could the selection of another rumored veep contender, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who signed into law a bill that includes in its definition of antisemitism “the denial of Jewish people’s right to self-determination and applying double standards to Israel’s actions”). But this policy or way of thinking, if embraced by the Harris campaign—regardless of who her running mate is—could do something else, too: It could undercut the core of Harris’ very compelling argument, which is that her campaign is standing up for American freedoms.

Harris is using Beyoncé’s song “ Freedom ” as her campaign anthem. In her first campaign ad, one can hear the song in the background as Harris speaks about the various freedoms she’s aiming to protect and expand on : “The freedom not just to get by, but to get ahead. The freedom to be safe from gun violence. The freedom to make decisions about your own body.”

If this list of freedoms is to mean anything, it has to include the freedom to speak out and protest against the United States and its foreign policy, including with respect to Israel. It’s fundamental to the very concept of American liberty.

I do not mean to pit Jewish candidates reportedly under consideration to be Harris’ running mate against each other, nor do I want to suggest that all Jews should take the same position. (As you may have heard, we’re not a monolith.) But this is a needle that Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has managed to thread. Back in May, he said that he supported Jewish organizations, but he also said, with respect to calls to oust university administrators, “I’m not about calling for people to step down.” Some protesters were anti-war, he said, and some were anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, and, yes, some were antisemitic. But, he stressed , “What I support is the fact that we need to protect not just Jewish students but all students on campuses where there are protests.” That’s how it should be in America: We all have a right to speak out, and we all have a right to be safe.

I can understand and even sympathize with Shapiro’s obvious desire to use his leadership role to combat antisemitism. However, this past April he said , “If the universities in accordance with their policies can’t guarantee the safety and security and well-being of the students, then I think it is incumbent upon a local mayor or local governor or local town councilor, whoever is the local leadership there, to step in and enforce the law.” This past spring, we saw how sending in law enforcement escalated the situation on campuses; at Columbia , we even saw an officer fire his gun inside a student-occupied building. But beyond that: What does the threat of law enforcement do to academic freedom, or freedom of assembly, or freedom of expression? Aren’t those freedoms also critical for the well-being of American Jews?

How the Harris campaign manages this isn’t all down to whether she chooses Shapiro. On Thursday, in response to protests against Israel on the occasion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, Harris put out a statement saying , “I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews. Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent and we must not tolerate it in our nation.” She added, “I condemn the burning of the American flag. That flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America. It should never be desecrated in that way. I support the right to peacefully protest, but let’s be clear: Antisemitism, hate and violence of any kind have no place in our nation.”

I do not expect a person running for president of the United States to come out in support of flag burning or pro-Hamas graffiti. But the right to peaceful protest has to extend to the right to protest a head of state, even the head of Israel, even if what’s said at those protests makes some uncomfortable. Further, while I do not doubt that some people at some protests crossed over into antisemitism this year, the conflation of the protests with antisemitism remains problematic: Netanyahu may have tried to draw a straight line between conspiracies around the Jewish people and criticism of the Jewish state in his address to Congress, but Harris doesn’t have to follow his lead. (And, in fairness, she herself criticized the death toll and humanitarian conditions in Gaza on Thursday, vowing that she would not “be silent.”)

Kamala Harris will not make this country safer for American Jews by trying to shut down or stomp out criticism about Israel. What she can do to ensure our safety, though, with Shapiro or whoever else is on the ticket—including possible running mate Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who clapped when Netanyahu, during his address, referred to protesters as “Iran’s useful idiots”—is protect pluralism in politics and in the public square.

Project 2025 has been described as a Christian nationalist mission. It is, I would argue, in the interest of American Jews that those attached to it lose. But the way to do that is to protect freedoms of assembly and expression, too. The freedom to worship how we choose, speak out against our government, and, yes, protest—these are freedoms that make life better and safer for American Jews. And for everyone else, too.

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