Former undocumented workers employed at President Donald Trump‘s golf resorts spoke to the Washington Post about their tenure working for a celebrity mogul who would ascend to the White House on a nativist “build the wall” message that targeted the very immigrants his clubs employed. In addition to the indignity of his politics, the workers make Trump sound like a nightmare boss. Certainly there are several current and former administration staffers who can relate.
The Post describes Trump as “a fussy celebrity owner who presided like a monarch” over his properties, including the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey, which employed Sandra Diaz, an undocumented worker from Costa Rica who served as Trump’s personal housekeeper. Diaz attended to Trump’s every weirdo need. For example, every morning she’d lay out six sets of the same identical golf outfit, along with six ironed pairs of boxer shorts. His dresser drawer had to be outfitted with exactly one and a half containers of white Tic Tacs, the breath mint Trump mentioned by name on the Access Hollywood tape.
In addition to the mints, Trump’s drawer was to be stocked, at all times, with two and a half containers of Bronx Colors foundation makeup, which is presumably what gives Trump’s face that burnt ochre hue that stops about a half inch from his eyes. The sweaty elder’s excessive use of makeup frequently forced the housekeeping staff to bring him extra white golf shirts due to collar stains. Other resort workers knew that no one could be seen touching the straw that was inserted into Trump’s standard glass of Diet Coke.
According to the Post, Trump’s shower was always stocked with a bar of Irish Spring soap which the cleaning staff was not permitted to throw away until he threw the resulting sliver on the floor. Tossing items on the floor, whether it be clothes or newspapers, was his way of signaling that the item was ready to be disposed of. If Michael Wolff’s tell-all Fire & Fury is any indication, a demonstrably more paranoid Trump switched up his routine by the time he got to the White House, as he reportedly blew up at the housekeeping staff shortly after moving in for laundering dirty shirts he had thrown onto the floor, and forbid them to touch his toothbrush out of fear of being poisoned.
Trump resort workers knew to exude an air of invisibility, simply slipping in and out of each room, doing their work, and then leaving no trace of themselves behind, like ghosts. Part of that dynamic resulted in staffers witnessing family drama firsthand, as Trump never felt the need to amend his behavior in front of staff. One particular incident entailed Trump freaking out at Melania Trump‘s father and Trump’s father-in-law. From the Post:
One day in 2013, Viktor Knavs went out to play golf wearing one of Trump’s discarded red baseball caps. When Trump spotted him on the fairway, he blew up, and he ordered his father-in-law, in front of other golfers, to remove the hat and get off the course…Knavs returned [to the villa], threw the hat on the ground and cursed Trump.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham denied the accounts of the former Trump resort workers. “The assertions made for this story are not only false, they are a disgusting attempt at invading the privacy of the First Family,” Grisham wrote in a statement issued to the Post. “This is not journalism — it is fabricated tabloid trash.”
