That ongoing investigation into exactly how the Russians hacked the 2016 election is certain to heat back up any day now, but until then, the nation’s reporters, much like firefighters, are having to find other burning buildings to run toward.
It’s not on fire, but President Donald Trump’s childhood home in Queens is a hot property now that it’s been listed on Airbnb, and reporters are sending back dispatches the likes of which we haven’t seen since journalists uncovered the creepy manner in which college-age Deadspin owner Ted Cruz used to wander around the women’s dorm area in a paisley bathrobe.
Partial list of newsrooms that have sent journos to sleep in T's childhood home in recent weeks:@NewYorker @nytimes @nypost @Newsweek pic.twitter.com/IRmJrUVpUS
— David S. Joachim (@davidjoachim) August 22, 2017
https://twitter.com/ChipsAHoying/status/900086643104854021
Just like firefighters!
Donald Trump's childhood bedroom. Newsweek has intrepidly rented out his original home in Queens. pic.twitter.com/6JeTyDBIoN
— Alexander Nazaryan (@alexnazaryan) August 16, 2017
Is anyone other than reporters Airbnb'ing Trump's childhood home?
— katie honan (@katie_honan) August 22, 2017
Nope.
Friends, I spent last night in Donald Trump's childhood home and lived to tell the tale: https://t.co/a94upbwPnn
— Amanda Petrusich (@amandapetrusich) August 22, 2017
Amanda Petrusich in the New Yorker:
A week earlier, firm in the belief that meaning can be wrung from all experiences, I’d arranged to spend a night in the house where Trump was conceived and lived, from infancy to age four. Now I held my sage aloft, like the Statue of Liberty gripping her torch. I’d read that ancient peoples believed that the herb had cleansing powers—that it could purify a space. I would excise these malevolent spirits in service of my country, or fall down a flight of stairs trying.
It’s not exactly Mar-a-Lago inside https://t.co/Gv8drNbsjZ
— New York Post (@nypost) August 22, 2017
Gabrielle Fonrouge in the New York Post:
One of the bathrooms features a full-length mirror — disturbingly, right in front of the toilet.
The kitchen was so unimpressive, it’s not even worth mentioning, but it is apparently just like when Trump lived here.
The whole place smells like a church rectory, full of mothballs and lemon Pledge.
The Times spent the night at Donald Trump's childhood home, and you can too… On Airbnb https://t.co/EjV4qcIC9s
— Sarah Maslin Nir (@SarahMaslinNir) August 21, 2017
Andy Newman for the New York Times managed to dig up some controversy:
As I entered the access code and pushed open the door on Saturday afternoon, I felt a silence envelop me. There was a living room decorated with red-and-gold, Ethan-Allen-ish chairs and couches and a chaise longue meant to invoke a degree of midcentury splendor. Behind it was a dining room table with a large American flag folded across it. (Displaying the American flag on a dining table violates several provisions of the federal law known as the United States Flag Code, said Michael Buss, a flag expert and deputy director at the American Legion.)
IMPEACH.
https://twitter.com/Billy36242106/status/900089696935698432
https://twitter.com/Bennettruth/status/900087420670152709
— mike (@mlonpolitics) August 22, 2017
https://twitter.com/pornada/status/900107060032880641
* * *
Media fact-checkers back on the job and searching Google for photos of Donald Trump in a bathrobe https://t.co/ivVmuLmkZx
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) February 6, 2017
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