Trump’s Worrying New Habit Exposed in Bombshell Book
It’s taken over a whole room in the White House.
President Donald Trump is secretly stashing loads of junk in the White House.
Trump, 80, has turned the White House residence into his own personal storage unit, according to Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, the new bombshell book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, in which the authors referred to him as an “inveterate hoarder.”
The president has turned the space that was once his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s office into a hoarding space, filled with “papers, paintings, tchotchkes, MAGA paraphernalia, and various gifts he couldn’t bear to throw away.”
Trump stores much of his junk in his so-called “Beautiful Mind boxes,” a term White House aides gave to the boxes that hold the president’s collection of newspapers and official documents he always keeps close to him. Those aides implied that his carrying around of these materials seems to give him a sense of security, The New York Times reported in 2023.
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The president’s hoarding habits came to light in 2023, when he and his personal aide, Walt Nauta, were federally indicted for allegedly mishandling classified documents. Prosecutors said he took top-secret documents with him to Florida after leaving office, including some on nuclear programs and military vulnerabilities.

The president allegedly stored documents in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago.
Department of Justice
Images from the DOJ showed several rooms at his Mar-a-Lago golf club filled with boxes upon boxes of documents, among other junk, including newspaper clippings, clothing, and MAGA merchandise.
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The indictment said that Trump “was personally involved” in the process of packing materials into boxes as he prepared to leave office after losing his reelection bid.
Trump has labeled his office with gold lettering.
Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS
In Trump’s second term, the “Beautiful Mind boxes” are used less to carry his piles of paper, as White House aides instead carry the documents loose, according to Regime Change.
The president’s conversion of Kushner’s old office into his personal storage room only adds to the many cosmetic changes Trump has made to the White House.
Trump turned Kushner's old office into a storage unit for MAGA junk.
Evelyn Hockstein/REUTERS
He has torn down the East Wing to make way for his ballroom vanity project, the cost of which has ballooned to $600 million.
Trump has also paved over the Rose Garden with concrete, turning it into a patio that mimics a Palm Beach restaurant.

The Rose Garden has been paved over with concrete.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Trump has labeled the Rose Garden and the Oval Office in gold cursive lettering.
He’s also taken decor decisions into his own hands, as he’s been caught with a bottle of Super Glue putting up his signature tacky gold decals around the Oval Office.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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