Washington: December 1, 2017 ✉️

This is part of our ongoing investigative series into the Trump White House.

Our reporting has led us to a book called “Managing the White House” which is the “bible” used by all administrations.

It started on a few scraps of paper written out by George Washington in 1789 to remind him of his tasks for the next day. It is now in its 45th edition and, of course, is electronic.

It has grown in length. And there are now helpful appendices much used by previous administrations – such as the U.S Constitution 🙄 – although one can only assume that appendix is not regularly consulted by this White House. It is assumed that an up to date copy of the Federal Election Campaign Act is more regularly perused.

Sections have been added as needed. Some, such as “Waging a Civil War” had been thought to be of no further use and there had been pressure on the editors to drop that section. However, the section has been recast – and the heading has been changed from North vs South to The Coasts v The Centre.

The “How to Wage War Successfully” chapter has needed to be continuously updated since 1941. By 1945, it had been polished. But updated since have been spotty. For example, it was only recently discovered that while the chapter was updated regularly, the copies sent to the White House in 1964 to 1972 and again since 2001 had the chapter missing due to a printing error.

“Handling a Scandal” has been a recurring topic. For all administrations. Although a casual observer would conclude that no lesson was ever learned and that there were no available guide, it is one of the most read sections of the book. There are sub-sections – sex, money etc. The Kennedy administration were seen as very successful in their time – updated the sex scandal section regularly. It fell into disuse during the Carter Administration and was removed prior to 1992. But after the Clinton White House years ended – a decision was made to reuse the 1963 version – no detail ever leaked.

Finally, the section on firing people has been continually updated by all administrations. The Nixon administration added a long sector on sacking a Special Prosecutor.

And it is assumed that the current White House has already contributed its own experiences. That said, former White House Chiefs of Staff contacted for this article said that while seeking to replace someone by leaking news of their replacement may have been a tactic successfully used by Trump when changing wives, they questioned whether it was an appropriate tactic for replacing Secretaries of State.

Which it clearly is not.