When Donald Trump moved into The White House, he was accompanied by his wife Melania Trump and son Barron, who radically overhauled the official residence and workplace of the POTUS. Both Melania and Barron Trump didn't shift to the White House immediately after the president’s inauguration.
Instead, the First Lady of the United States didn't join her husband at the White House for five months. As soon as they moved in, Barron broke the tradition established since John F. Kennedy’s presidency, according to an Express report.
Barron is the first son of a president to live in the White House after JFK. Interestingly, all American presidents after JFK's administration including Richard Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and even Barack Obama all had daughters. JFK's son John Jnr lived in the White House back in 1963.
The presidents in between them including George HW Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald Ford were fathers only to adults boys, who didn't fancy living in the White House. Barron and his mother Melania didn't shift to Washington DC during the summer but stayed in New York until Barron finished school.
CNN correspondent Kate Bennett points out that in her book “Free, Melania,” the FLOTUS decided to redecorate their rooms because she wasn't pleased with how and the Obama family designed the space. Bennett wrote that she got it redecorated as soon as she moved in as she didn't like the beige and burnt orange palette done by the Obamas’ decorator, Michael S. Smith.
Melania hardly retained any of the Obama decor, which the family reportedly spent for out of pocket amounting to $1.5 million by the end of eight years in the White House. On top of that, the president's children can also decorate their spaces.
Keeping in line with that, Barron added a basketball court in White House, which now has a bowling alley, a billiard room, a cinema, a swimming pool, and a jogging track. Moreover, Barron's education is unlike previous kids in the White House children.
While all former presidents' kids went to elite Quaker institution Sidwell Friends in DC over the last 35 years, Barron, on the other hand, goes to the private St Andrew’s School located in Potomac, Maryland. Compared to having a floor to himself at the Trump Tower, 13-year-old Barron’s move to the White House was deemed a downgrade. Barron has brought these changes to suit his lifestyle.