The Seat of Power

Just a short note for a Saturday, as I cannot stop laughing about the image of Donald Trump’s Combination Toilet and Top Secret Document Storage Facility.

In the past, when we’ve thought about the grand history of presidents and potties, there have been a handful of usual suspects.

There’s the famous but almost certainly fake story that the larger-than-life William Howard Taft got stuck in a bathtub and had to be pried loose by a half dozen men.

Then there’s the famous but certainly true stories that Lyndon Johnson made phone calls and even conducted presidential business with aides face-to-face in the Oval Office bathroom as he conducted his personal business. (LBJ, we must remember, was especially sensitive about his “bunghole”)

But those presidents will have to step aside, as the appropriately named Donald John Trump has established himself as the Commoder in Chief.

Upon arriving at the White House, Trump had the Oval Office toilet replaced, apparently because Obama had used it. Reporters marveled that he loved showing off the new bathroom. He talked about toilets all the time, even complaining that Americans had to flush “10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once” — a weird rant that made a little sense once it was revealed that Trump had been trying to flush ripped-up documents in the toilet.

And that, of course, was all before this week’s bombshell revelation about the Mar-a-Lago bathroom, completely unsecured and completely filled with boxes of classified and top secret documents. Trump had the toilet title to himself already, but with this damning indictment and instant classic of a photo, it’s guaranteed to be a huge part of his legacy.

When you think of Trump, think of this: