Trump is not taking his impeachment well, according to Politico, and he no longer trusts most of the people in his own government as paranoia and fear keeps him secluded in the private resident of the White House.
Politico reports that Trump barely enters the Oval Office at this point and even forced Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to meet him in the same rooms where he consumes a steady diet of cheeseburgers and well-done steaks.
The residence was where Trump made the infamous July 25 phone call to the Ukrainian president that’s now at the center of impeachment proceedings. It’s where Trump often meets his personal attorneys to plot legal strategy or campaign advisers to shape 2020 campaign moves. And last week it became the location for a Trump meeting that’s as official as any, hosting Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell — the target of countless Trump Twitter attacks — along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for a Monday morning discussion of monetary policy.
Maintaining a sanctuary to work and think has taken on greater importance for the president as he increasingly feels under siege by the Democratic impeachment inquiry. Frustrated by the whistleblower complaint and a parade of administration officials testifying on Capitol Hill, Trump is as wary as ever of the staffers around him and distrustful of the traditional White House infrastructure. Working from his private quarters gives him space away from what he perceives as prying eyes and guards against his omnipresent fear of leaks to the media.
The problem, of course, isn't so much that his staffers can't be trusted; it's that Trump can't be trusted not to say some truly insane shit within earshot of people who still have some small semblance of integrity that Trump hasn't exercised from them yet.
This kind of isolation did not feel necessary to any other president in our recent history because they were not in the habit of committing crimes on the hour of every hour of every day.
This is beside the point, but can you even imagine what gaudy and hideous things the next president will find when they enter the private residence of the White House? They're going to have to tear it down to the wood.