Trump’s ‘truly bizarre’ visit to Mt. Vernon
The 45th president — no student of history — marveled at the first president’s failure to name his historic compound after himself.
President Donald Trump had some advice for George Washington.
During a guided tour of Mount Vernon last April with French president Emmanuel Macron, Trump learned that Washington was one of the major real-estate speculators of his era. So, he couldn’t understand why America’s first president didn’t name his historic Virginia compound or any of the other property he acquired after himself.
“If he was smart, he would’ve put his name on it,” Trump said, according to three sources briefed on the exchange. “You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you.”
The VIPs’ tour guide for the evening, Mount Vernon president and CEO Doug Bradburn, told the president that Washington did, after all, succeed in getting the nation’s capital named after him. Good point, Trump said with a laugh.
America’s 45 th president is open about the fact that he doesn’t read much history. Trump said in July 2016 that he had never read a presidential biography — and had no plans to do so. Though he is an avid fan of George Patton, the flashy, tough-talking World War II general, he has shown less interest in learning about his presidential predecessors or about the office he now occupies. Former White House aides say Trump initially did not know the history of the Resolute Desk, which has been used by presidents since Rutherford B. Hayes, though he now enjoys showing it off to visitors to the Oval Office.
Trump’s lack of interest in presidential history, said the historian Jon Meacham, means that he has “basically thrown out the one data set available to him. We don’t have anything else to study. It’s all you got.” It also stands in contrast to the fascination of other presidents with their predecessors. Even former President George W. Bush — not known as a tweedy intellectual — consumed several presidential biographies while in office.
A spokeswoman for Mount Vernon pointed to a statement posted on the estate’s website at the time of the president’s visit. “We are always happy to extend the famous Washington hospitality to the President of the United States and visiting dignitaries from around the world,” said Mount Vernon Regent Sarah Miller Coulson. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The president’s disinterest in Washington made it tough for tour guide Bradburn to sustain Trump’s interest during a deluxe 45-minute tour of the property which he later described to associates as "truly bizarre." The Macrons, Bradburn has told several people, were far more knowledgeable about the history of the property than the president.
A former history professor with a PhD , Bradburn “was desperately trying to get [Trump] interested in" Washington's house, said a source familiar with the visit, so he spoke in terms Trump understands best — telling the president that Washington was an 18th century real-estate titan who had acquired property throughout Virginia and what would come to be known as Washington, D.C.
Trump asked whether Washington was "really rich," according to a second person familiar with the visit. In fact, Washington was either the wealthiest or among the wealthiest Americans of his time, thanks largely to his mini real estate empire.
“That is what Trump was really the most excited about,” this person said.
If Trump was impressed with Washington’s real estate instincts, he was less taken by Mount Vernon itself, which the first president personally expanded from a modest one-and-a-half story home into an 11,000 square foot mansion. The rooms, Trump said, were too small, the staircases too narrow, and he even spotted some unevenness in the floorboards, according to four sources briefed on his comments. He could have built the place better, he said, and for less money.
“Mount Vernon has a policy of not providing details about high profile visits outside of the official statements provided by the organization,” a spokesperson for Mount Vernon told POLITICO.
Many Americans don't fare much better than the president when it comes to a knowledge of the basic facts of American history — and one person close to the White House said the president’s supporters aren’t bothered by the fact that he isn’t a history buff.
“His supporters don't care, and if anything they enjoy the fact that the liberal snobs are upset” that he doesn’t know much history, this person said.
A recent survey conducted by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation found that just four in 10 Americans today can pass the country's citizenship exam, which is comprised of several multiple-choice questions about the Constitution and American history, such as "Who did the United States fight during World War II?" and "What is one right granted under the First Amendment to the Constitution?"
But most Americans do not become president of the United States. After their tour of Washington's mansion, the Trumps and the Macrons dined in the house's New Room, an experience rarely afforded even to the most exclusive visitors to the property, according to sources familiar with the site’s operations. The previous year, the Macrons hosted the Trumps for dinner in the Eiffel Tower, and the evening at Mount Vernon was meant to be a corresponding gesture.
Mount Vernon, which includes extensive gardens, a farm, a distillery and gristmill, and the tombs of Washington and his wife, Martha, attracts an average of a million tourists a year, including dozens of VIPs, according to its website. Bush visited the site with his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2007, and foreign dignitaries from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have all dropped in while visiting the United States.
Mt Vernon already had it's name when George Washington inherited it from a family member. The place had been named by George Washington's older half brother Lawrence, who named it Mt. Vernon after a British military officer Lawrence Washington had served under. If Trump had followed his own advice he would have renamed Mar-a-lago, his Florida estate, Trumpworld.
Trump is an idiot.
Yeah....I never heard of Washington....
I was thinking the same thing when I saw the report on CNN.
I think there has to be at least one county in each state named Washington and a town or city named Washington. Or as they say in Arkansas "Warshington"
Or an entire state.
LOL!
I wonder if there is a Washington Township, Washington County, Washington?
I live in WA., guess it would have been a tad funnier had I said so.
Several years ago I took a trip to DC because...I had never been there. One gal asked me where I was from...
Me: "Washington."
Them: "OH! So you're a local!"
Me: "No, Washington State."
Them: "Oh ok, you didn't say, "state"".
Me: "When someone from Colorado tells you they are from Colorado, are you confused when they don't say, "state"?
......
I grew up about 20 miles outside of a town named Indiana. I went to college there at Indiana University of PA. People would think I was from the state of Indiana when they asked where I was from.
And it was in Indiana County.....
Or even, possibly, an entire nation's capital!
Trivia alert: There are 20 towns in America named "Moscow".
Reports like this really give the lie to all the conservatives who associate Trump with carrying on for the founding fathers. The founding fathers would have been appalled by an ignoramus like Trump. Everyone knows this, even the right wingers who deny it.
I thought the founding fathers where racist bigots.
Damn near all of them were.
No they weren't-- how could they be when in fact many were actually Muslims! (Everybody knows this).
Honestly, dip shits like Trump were actually one of the reasons the Electoral College was created. Part of the idea was that if the people voted for a moron like Trump, the electors would basically step in and say "nah, he is too much of a dumb ass, this guy will be president instead." Of course it doesn't work like that, which is yet another reason the EC needs to go.
How do you know what the Founding fathers would've thunk?
"He could have built the place better, he said, and for less money"
Been there, done that, said that myself.
Big Deal !
[delete]
Who the fuck ever studies "Mouse Droppings"
Fascinating !
“oh shit it's shit”
― Stephen King,
Who the fuck ever studies "Mouse Droppings"
Everybody says "Mouse Droppings".
REALLY ?
I doubt Washington would have stiffed his workers like Trump has done to his.
Yeah, and I bet his slaves would have been pissed off if Washington didn't pay them.
I wonder if he'd also complain about the name of Monticello?
It's hard to understand what would motivate someone to display their profound ignorance so openly every day. It's like Trump is proud of knowing so little about the country he leads.
Donald Trump is a one-note wonder who only knows how to promote himself. He is not a leader and he has failed as a businessman.
It's known as the Dunning–Kruger effect.
ok thanks
i will check it out
It's known as the Dunning–Kruger effect.
Thanks for mentioning that!
I was well aware of the concept, but never knew it had a name-- and that it was explained in such detail.
Among other things on the page you linked to it says:
The mechanism behind this bias is two-fold. A first cause is ego . Very few people like to think of themselves as below average in anything, therefore we tend to overestimate our abilities to increase our confidence. Secondly is the more important point, which Dunning and Kruger highlight in their paper, that our below-average abilities in an area inherently makes us a bad judge of how good we are in that skill. Our knowledge gaps create difficulties in recognizing errors. It is quite hard to judge what a good writer is if you have poor grammar skills. Therefore, as Dunning and Kruger put it
“overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.”
These people aren’t just bad at a skill, they’re also bad at knowing they are bad at it.
After reading that, I immediately thought of political (and religious) discussions on NT-- most comments are in these discussions are extreme examples of this phenomenon!
LOL? NOT!
The Trump's bizarre visit? Not really, it is who he is. And do not forget, his base adores 'the classiness' of the Trump presence.
Wonder what Macron and his wife discussed later?
I was interested by the reference to the American citizenship exam, which used multiple choice questions. In such an exam, only one choice could be correct. The question referenced in the article was:
I was wondering about 4 suggested answers for the question:
1. Canada
2. India
3. Germany
4. Japan
Remember, there can only be one right answer, so what would it be?
Buzz,
We declared war on Japan first, since the bombed Pearl Harbor but 3 days later we declared war on Germany. We fought both.
I am actually disturbed that most American citizens could not pass a Citizenship test. Our founding fathers were very worried about an uninformed electorate. Maybe we should start giving a test to pass high school, or you can't vote.
I thought Germany declared war on us after we declared war on Japan? I need to go Wiki....
My high school civics teacher used the US citizenship test as half of the final exam. I thought that it was easy.
Good idea - no credentials authorizing voting privilege unless such a test is passed. Of course, your huge number of illegal immigrants might never get the opportunity to take such a test, and wouldn't that cut a lot of votes for the Democrats?
That would be a blatant violation of the 26th amendment that says that any American over the age of 18 can vote.
Does the definition for an American for the purpose of that Amendment include illegal aliens? If it does, then perhaps when I was living an hour's drive from Buffalo I could have driven over the Peace Bridge and found a polling station and voted, eh?
You need to be an American citizen to vote.
You need to be an American citizen to vote in federal elections legally.
How many non-citizens are illegally voting in federal elections?
I have no earthly idea, and all anyone can do is estimate it anyways.
What's that got to do with requiring one to be an American citizen to legally vote in federal elections?
Have there not been reports of such things happening, especially in California?
You brought it up so where is the proof to support your claims? If you don't have the proof to support your claims then don't bring it up.
Don't try to move the goalposts now.
Whoa. Slow down. What I claimed is that one must be an American citizen to legally vote in a federal election.
Remember this? Post 7.1.7
I made a comment. It is a fact that my comment is correct. What you decided you thought I wrote isn't what I did write.
No one moved any goalposts on you.
SMMFH
You did more than that in this post. You implied that people are illegally voting, but you have no proof of that.
It is very poor form to try and debate what you "think" I said or meant" instead of what I actually write.
You may get away with that with others, but I won't be participating in that.
Your evasive game is not amusing.
Good. It isn't a game and it isn't amusing to me either.
Then stop doing it and answer my previous question in 7.1.9.
Someone's not paying attention.
Asked and answered, counselor.
Actually, while we delcared war on Japan, we did not declare war on Germany. Germany declared war on us with the understanding that Japan would declare war on the USSR (which didn't happen). Had Germany not done that we would only have been fighting the Japanese (that part of the war would have ended a lot sooner if that were the case).
No, because they don't vote. Or at least not in numbers that make even the slightest difference.
Our problem is not voter fraud, it is the fact even in a good election year maybe half of the eligible population actually turns out.
Australia probably has the right idea - it's an offence NOT to vote without a lawful excuse, and you have to pay a fine.
Belgium, too. It's a good idea.
The US declared war on Nazi Germany in the afternoon of the 11th of December 1941, after they declared war on the US that morning following the US declaration of war on their Axis ally Japan.
Pretty sure that folk who don't intelligently follow all of the issues shouldn't vote.
There should be a civics and current issues test to decide who can and who can't vote.
An IQ test should also be involved.
You are correct. Germany did declare war on the U.S. first.
I am cool with that.
Oh those technicalities lol. So we were both right! But thank you, I was not aware of that bit of info.
I remember that it happened from my European history class but I still looked it up to be sure of the date.
Maybe we should start giving a test to pass high school,
And here's another idea: maybe we should give a test to pass high school that actually measure whether kids actually learned what they should've in High School-- and then not let them graduate if they don't pass it!
(Just kidding
I am actually disturbed that most American citizens could not pass a Citizenship test. Our founding fathers were very worried about an uninformed electorate. Maybe we should start giving a test to pass high school, or you can't vote.
But what about the people who are already voters-- but who are extremely ignorant? Shoukld they have to take that test as well?
We declared war on Japan first, since the bombed Pearl Harbor but 3 days later we declared war on Germany. We fought both.
Which shows the stupidity of the person who formulated that question....
(Well, unless they would accept "germany" and "Japan" as correct answers. Still-- not exactly a great way to word a question).
That would be a violation of the 26th Amendment as well as the Voting Rights Act that prohibited tests to vote.
There is only one right answer: Canada. Because you're too damn nice
One must not ignore history or be bound to repeat it. America tried to invade Canada in 1812 and ended up with a fire-blackened white house. The Battle of Stony Creek, Ontario, (just east of the city of my birth and youth) was the decisive defeat of the American troops.
Sorry, episte, but I'm unable to open that link.
But we didn't lose the war of 1812
Maybe you didn't lose it, because the French fleet came to your rescue, but you didn't win it either, because Canada did not become part of the USA, eh?
That was the Revolutionary War. France wasn't much involved in 1812.
what Bob said. Your grasp of history is worse than mine
We didn't study American history when I was in school in Canada - and history was my worst subject anyway.
... whereas all Americans are intimately familiar with all the details of Canadian history...
LOL
Seems Canada can't decide on which world power to be part of, eh?
My French was always marginal at best.
I say shut down the border with Canada so we no longer have to worry about another William Shatner.
We spell like the Brits and talk like the Yankees.
LOL. I had to study French in High School, and my French is marginal as well.
If I were you, I'd keep the border in place, or you would have Justin Bieber become an American. Wait a sec. Did I hear he was applying for American citizenship? I hope he does - you can have him.
I think Canada should join the EU. There's a place opening up, one of these days.
Too long of a criminal record, sorry.
LOL. Well, I saw that he purchased an historic mansion in England - hopefully he'll settle there then.
And have a bunch of unelected European officials tell Canada what it can and can not do? That'll be the day.
You're right. You'll do fine with Trumpland and China.
Neither the USA nor China can force Canada to do anything. Granted that Trump bullied Trudeau into signing a NAFTA replacement, but that's either because Trudeau preferred not to fight or else in fact it had its benefits for Canada as well. It seems to me that the EU has the power to force its member nations as to what they can and cannot do.
Not exactly. The Commission, which is an emanation of the member states, creates "directives", which the member states must apply. It's "doubly indirect" democracy.
Do you think Canada can go it alone indefinitely?
I say shut down the border with Canada so we no longer have to worry about another William Shatner.
Personally I'd be more worried about them sending us more people like Justin Beiber.
Personally I think we shoud deny citizenship to the Kardashians (every lastone of 'em) , and deport them.
Permanently!
Why not? Canada is not exactly bereft of necessary natural resources.
I was interested by the reference to the American citizenship exam, which used multiple choice questions. In such an exam, only one choice could be correct. The question referenced in the article was:
"Who did the United States fight during World War II?"
I was wondering about 4 suggested answers for the question:
1. Canada
2. India
3. Germany
4. Japan
Remember, there can only be one right answer, so what would it be?
Who did we fight during WWII? At first I thought the correct answer was "India"-- but then I realized I must've been thinking of The French and Indian War.
Actually the War of 1812 was pretty much a stalemate. The US invasion of Canada was a loser from the get go.
Here is an article from History that explains it quite well.
In many battles American militia men refused to cross into Canada to fight.
Thanks, Kavika. Interesting read
I read this. Makes me sad that such a downright stupid individual is somehow our president.
I have been in a state of shock for the past few years.