Inauguration Day also is move in/out day at the White House - Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (AP) — Moving from house to house is challenging under the best of circumstances, and even with movers as first rate as the housekeepers and other staff who work in the White House.

The process would continue during the ceremony and the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

“They basically have the moving trucks waiting outside the White House gates,” said Matt Costello, a historian at the White House Historical Association.

“And as soon as the president and president-elect leave, they wave in the moving trucks, and they'll pack up the outgoing president's things, and then they'll unpack all of the new first family's things.”.

A luncheon for the new president at the Capitol has been scrapped, and the hourslong parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House will be virtual.

That combination of events in the past has kept the new president and first lady out of the White House long enough for the household staff to finish moving in their clothing, furnishings and other personal items.

The White House was the scene of several coronavirus outbreaks that infected dozens of staffers and others, including Trump and his wife, Melania.

The White House normally is thoroughly cleaned in between families, said Anita McBride, who as an assistant to President George W.

The White House chief usher, who oversees the housekeeping staff, typically coordinates with someone on the incoming president's team to learn about their preferences so the residence can be made to feel as much like home as possible, with clothes hanging in the closets and favorite foods in the kitchen.

Once the waiting moving trucks are waved through tight security and onto the White House grounds, residence staff members break into groups to carry out specific assignments.

The chief usher reports to Melania Trump, who toured the White House living quarters in November 2016 when she accompanied Donald Trump to the White House for a post-election meeting with then-President Barack Obama.

President-elect Joe Biden has promised a quick and dramatic reversal of the restrictive immigration policies put in place by his predecessor President Donald Trump.