![]() “A shower that had volume and force was one of life’s few comforts,” she told me. LBJ’s younger daughter, Luci Baines Johnson, is still defensive about his fixation. It’s not hard to imagine Trump doing something similar. “If I can move 10,000 troops in a day (referring to the Vietnam War), you can certainly fix the bathroom any way I want it!” Johnson would bellow. Sitting in the Oval Office, Johnson would call Arrington while he was in the plumbers shop, located underground between the White House and the West Wing. It was never hot enough, and the water pressure was never at the needle-like intensity he so desperately wanted. ![]() For the five years he was in office, Johnson was obsessively focused on the water pressure and temperature of his shower. Johnson made life hell, for example, for plumbing foreman Reds Arrington (who got his nickname because of his mane of bright red hair). ![]() Historically, it is the kind of seemingly small revelations of personal behavior and individual quirks like those included in Wolff’s book that reveal the compulsive nature of some of the men who have occupied the highest office. Some of them were disturbing, but they also made iconic presidents and first ladies more human. ![]() But when writing my book “The Residence,” about the approximately 100 men and women who work as chefs, maids, ushers and florists on the White House residence staff, I heard many strange stories. The book has not been released yet, and there is little way of confirming how much of it is true. ![]()
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