Donald Trump Is Skipping This Major White House Tradition

Everyone's always so focused on the president and first family, but let's be honest: the real stars of the White House are always the presidential pets. From Buddy and Socks Clinton, to Spotty Bush (and about a thousand others), to Bo and Sunny Obama, presidents have kept some furry pals at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But what about our current leader? Does President Donald Trump have pets? Looks like he's skipping the most adorable of presidential traditions.

Currently, the Trumps do not have a pet, and according to Jennifer Boswell Pickens, authors of Pets at the White House, there's no evidence that the Trump's had any pets before the White House either.

It's not for lack of opportunity, either. In December 2016, before Trump took the White House, someone reportedly offered to gift the then-future president a puppy. According to The Washington Post, Lois Pope, a booster from Palm Beach, Florida and an old friend of Trump, told the publication that she had a 9-week-old golden retriever/poodle mix named Patton that she wanted to gift to the Trumps. Pope said she told Trump about the puppy, and even brought a picture of it to their Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago and showed it to Trump. He reportedly then told her to show the photo to his son, Barron Trump, because he'd "fall in love with him," according to The Washington Post.

But sadly, nothing seems to have come of that. Former Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks told the Post in an email at the time that "no decisions have been made" about the puppy. Judging by the fact that it's almost three years after the fact and there's no White House doggo, I'm guessing Trump passed.

It's not really surprising that Patton never made it to the White House, given that the president reportedly hates man's best friend, according to The Washington Post. Sources close to Trump told the publication in August 2018 that the president has "an aversion to dogs."

It could be what's behind one of his choice insults, to boot. Back in August 2018, Trump's former aide and Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault released a tell-all book called Unhinged that included several allegations against the president — including claims that there are tapes of Trump saying the N-word. Elite Daily reached out to the White House at the time for comment on the claims, but did not hear back. Trump denied all of the claims his former sidekick made in her book in a series of tweets, and even lashed out at Manigault by calling her a "dog." Which is a terrible insult on its own, but apparently even worse coming from Trump, given his reported dislike for furry friends.

Can I offer you another jaw-dropper on top of Trump not liking dogs? Trump is the first president since Andrew Johnson in the 1860s to not have any pets, so he's really ditching a tradition with this pet thing.

Since there's nothing cute to look at in the current White House, sometimes it's nice to take a little trip down memory lane to the Obama White House. President Barack Obama had two dogs: Bo and Sunny. Bo, the eldest doggo, first joined the Obama family in 2009 and was later joined by Sunny in 2013, according to National Geographic.

Please, just watch this video of Bo's debut:

Who knows, maybe the president in 2020 will have three dogs to make up for the one we missed.