This Story About Ivanka, Obama, and Poop Is So Much Worse Than You Could Imagine

The sad tale of Secret Service agents and Ivanka’s 6.5 bathroom ban.

Chris Kleponis/ZUMA

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The brute stupidity and utter selfishness of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have once again come into sharp focus. But nestled into the more familiar allegations of wasting tax-payer money in the latest report are the surprising appearances of former President Barack Obama and an “unpleasant” bathroom mess.

The Washington Post on Thursday revealed that Secret Service agents assigned to protect the home of Ivanka and Jared—a 5,000-square-foot mansion in the wealthy Kalorama neighborhood of Washington—were forbidden from using any of the couple’s 6.5 bathrooms. The ban reportedly sent agents regularly scrambling in search of a reliable toilet, even forcing some to hit up colleagues stationed at the nearby garage of Barack Obama. But the plan came crashing down after an agent for the Trump-Kushner unit, during a fateful 2017 trip, left a giant, “unpleasant mess” that sparked yet another bathroom ban. From the Post:

The Obamas did not use the garage, so the extra traffic to and from the command post caused no problem. Yet this solution, too, was short-lived after a Secret Service supervisor from the Trump/Kushner detail left an unpleasant mess in the Obama bathroom at some point before the fall of 2017, according to a person briefed on the event. That prompted the leaders of the Obama detail to ban the agents up the street from ever returning.

The agents assigned to the president’s daughter and son-in-law began driving a mile to Pence’s home at the Naval Observatory, where they were allowed to use a bathroom in a stand-alone guard station.

Eventually, the Secret Service started renting a neighbor’s basement studio so agents could relieve themselves. But the $3,000-a-month solution—more than $100,000 to date—comes at the expense of taxpayers, bringing this entire sordid tale back to Ivanka and Jared’s long record of blowing through taxpayer money while like dad, treating Secret Service agents like complete shit. 

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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