President Trump Describes White House as “A Real Dump”-Disputed!
Summary of eRumor:
Golf magazine reported that President Trump was overheard saying the White House is “a real dump” in a private conversation at Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
The Truth:
President Trump and the White House both disputed claims that Trump told members of one of his golf clubs that the White House is “a real dump,” but Golf magazine countered that at least eight people heard the president make the comment.
A lengthy report on President Trump’s relationship with golf that appeared at Golf.com on August 1, 2017, reported that the president made the comment during a conversation with members of Trump National Golf Course in Bedminister, New Jersey. During the conversation, Trump reportedly said he visits private courses so much because the White House is “a real dump.”:
“He has his own cottage adjacent to the pool; it was recently given a secure perimeter by the Secret Service, leading to the inevitable joke that it’s the only wall Trump has successfully built,” Golf magazine reported. “Chatting with some members before a recent round of golf, he explained his frequent appearances: ‘That White House is a real dump.'”
It didn’t take President Trump long to respond to those allegations. He took to Twitter to call the report “fake news” and to praise the White House as one of the most beautiful buildings he’d ever seen:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/892920397162848257
But Alan Shipnuck, the author of the article, defended his reporting during a podcast with Golf.com’s Michael Bamberger on August 3, 2017. Shipnuck said he’d spoken directly to Hope Hicks, White House director of strategic communications, who demanded that he retract the article:
“Yeah, I had a conversation with Ms. Hicks as well, which was quite enlightening — the confrontational and rude tone of the phone call. They definitely don’t waste any time trying to be charming or friendly, these people in the White House communications department. She tried the same line on me, ‘That’s a lie and needs to be retracted.’
“I explained to them, it’s not a lie. The president said this in front of eight or nine members and staffers at Bedminster. It was his first visit to the club after he had been residing in the White House. It was a moment of candor. Someone who was a part of that conversation relayed it to me. I found this person to be an extremely credible source on a number of topics.”
In the end, there doesn’t appear to be a recording to definitively prove that Trump called the White House a dump, or corroborating accounts from any of the seven or eight people who reportedly heard the conversation. That means this one remains “disputed.”