The first presidential Iftar dinner (the name for a meal held after sunset, when Muslims break their fast), is said to have been hosted by Thomas Jefferson in 1805 for a Tunisian envoy.
The subject was covered in a blog post on a US Department of State website, IIP Digital.
The post, titled “Thomas Jefferson’s Iftar”, appears to have been removed, but is available in archived form here.
The idea of hosting a dinner was revived by Hillary Clinton in 1996, when she was First Lady.
Everyone keeps making a lot out of various traditional meals he is not having, but is it just me, or is the White House just basically not functioning at all and not doing any state dinners?
I feel like the fact that overall the White House is not functional is a huge issue. If Melania doesn’t want to do the first lady gig, I’m fine with that, but it really pisses me off that they have simply not done the entertaining that a president is expected to do.
I just googled, and he’s super far behind staffing and appointments.
He’s signed 350 recommendations but each one has to have a background check first and then questioned. And the questioning is taking on average 11 days longer than previously because he keeps appointing all these sketchy ass mofos! And its taking a long time because unlike every other presidential candidate he didn’t come with a list of pre-vetted appointees, he had to start from scratch because he’s an idiot and honestly I don’t think ever expected to win.
Well, they fired the house usher, whose job is to coordinate a lot of the dinners and events. The new Chief Usher (a former usher at a Trump hotel, not surprisingly) only started their job last Friday, so they went for nearly two months without anyone to coordinate day-to-day activities or any event planning.
The First Lady isn’t always the President’s wife. True fact. We have had unmarried Presidents before, and in these cases, the First Lady was some other relative or friend of the President. So technically, Ivanka could be the first lady, but this would be the first time that the President’s wife refused to be First Lady.
Bold prediction time: I predict that Trump will get divorced while in the White House, assuming he doesn’t die first or leave office prematurely.
Why would that of all things piss you off? I mean, it’s a good indicator of how much of a shit show the White House is, but I don’t think that specifically pisses me off.
I watched a video about the Trump’s marriage and apparently he and Melania were openly discussing divorce shortly before he started the run for president.
Belgium functioned for, IIRC, nearly 2 years without a government. No real problems.
I don’t see what everybody is worried about. Me, I would be more worried if he was running the country.
(Though I agree that the CIA might start a foreign war in the power vacuum.)
It can’t; it’s just not fucking sustainable, not at the rate 45 & Crew are going. They are terrible at EVERYTHING and can barely cobble together even the most flimsy facade of having any of their shit together.
I’m no fan of Bill Mahr, but I’m hoping his prediction that Cheetolini is gone by Xmas of 2017 is correct.
A few months back I realized that when the Occupant kicks off, the US will fly our flags at half mast in his “honor.” For a brief bit, I was actually kind of disturbed over that. After a bit more reflection I changed my mind: I will be quite overjoyed to fly a flag at half mast for him and it can’t happen soon enough.