Melania Trump has broken her self-imposed silence to announce the public will soon be allowed back into the White House for tours.
Donald Trump’s most strident MAGA supporters took a free, self-guided tour around the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, and some paid a heavy price with punitive prison sentences.
Now that they’ve been pardoned and set free by the president, they will just need the blessing of their congressional representatives and they can take a look around the White House. It won’t cost a penny, although they must leave flags and signs (and other weapons) outside.
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The tours traditionally include the public rooms in the East Wing and the residence, including the Vermeil Room, the Library, the China Room, the Blue Room, the Red Room, the Green Room, the State Dining Room, and a view of the White House Rose Garden.
Secret Service Officers are stationed along the tour route, presumably to ensure nobody steps out of turn, but they are also, according to the White House, “available to answer questions about each room’s history, art, furnishings, current uses, and beyond.”
The First Lady announced on Wednesday that the White House under her husband’s second term in office will be open for tour business beginning Feb. 25.
“The President and I are excited to reopen the White House to those interested in the extraordinary story of this iconic and beautiful landmark,” she said in a statement. “There is much to learn about the American Presidency, the First Families who have lived here, and our Nation’s rich history from a firsthand experience at the White House. This opportunity is unique among nations around the globe—a tradition we are honored to continue for the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come each year.”
Among the items visitors are allowed to bring, says the website, are cell phones, compact cameras with lenses less than 3 inches long, umbrellas without metal tips, wallets, baby carriers worn on the body, baby wipes, breast pumps, diaper bags, diapers, and service animals.
Not allowed are aerosols, ammunition, cameras with detachable lenses, e-cigarettes and smoking paraphernalia, electric stun guns, fireworks, flags, guns, knives of any kind, laptops, lighters, mace, martial arts weapons, metal water bottles, monopods, range finders, signs, strollers, tobacco products, toy weapons, video cameras, and water.
The president’s wife has not been seen in public since Jan. 24 in North Carolina, when she accompanied him on a tour of the Hurricane Helene disaster zone.
Maybe some of her visitors will manage to catch a glance.
